Monday 12 January – staying put

We decided to have a day of not moving. We had quite a few chores to do and a mountain of laundry. It was a lovely break from the noise of the engines. Sadly the water was not that clear, so no swimming, but we had a nice breeze that kept the boat cool and dried all the laundry very efficiently. Rowan got stuck into repairing the one guest loo that is broken. I defrosted and cleaned one set of fridge drawers that were in a bad way. Besides that it was a slow day. Rowan is a bit gloomy regarding our progress to get west, from now on until Sunday the wind will be coming straight from where we are heading. He has come up with a plan that we will head north from here up the Helmahera Island coast, do a bit of exploring and by Sunday we should have wind that we will have a good angle for. Fingers crossed as I think the wind never sticks to the forecast! No boats anywhere about, and never saw a long boat although we heard one. A very peaceful evening.