Tuesday 3 March – engine fixed

Rowan was up and off to town with Jonny, who was feeling loads better, to pick up a new battery and bring back Din to get it installed. It all went like clockwork and a round of applause for Din when he got it all working. We decided to attempt one last snorkel with the Crickmore’s so we returned to the Komodo resort where we had taken Lovat and family. They can take the Crickmore’s back to LBJ tomorrow at midday to beat the looming weather, the Crickmore’s have booked into a nice resort recommended by Max. Rowan had managed to book a mooring ball with the resort on the opposite side of the island, the one we were on before had a bit too much of a swing in the tide, not suitable if we were going to have wind as well. We picked up the mooring ball easily and went around to the resort side to have a snorkel. The tide was quite strong but everyone managed a good drift snorkel hanging onto the dinghy, the fish life was great and just as we got out we spotted a turtle. We needed to wait for the tide to turn so decided to go into the resort for a drink, it was very empty and loads of maintenance work was going on. Rowan had booked us in for dinner but it made much more sense to have a late lunch while we waited for the tide to turn which meant we did not have to do a dinghy ride in the dark. We all had a good lunch, served by the friendliest staff. Once we had finished we had another successful snorkel with a turtle not too disturbed by us at all. The soft coral was spectacular, beds of pale pink and purple all waving about in the current. Ottilie was not too keen initially with snorkelling but she eventually got in and I think had a good time seeing all the fish. We saw a huge school of fish and plenty of other fish, it must be protected from fishing.

We got back to Polepole around 5pm and had a wonderful evening up front on the boat, with everyone happy the day had ended so well.