Friday 2 January – Luke and Milly leave

We were up at 5:30am in the pitch dark dropping our lines, we had intended to pick up the lines in the dinghy and return them to the Cat that they belonged to. It was too dark with no moon, we were on a tight schedule for Luke and Milly to catch the ferry, so we could not linger. We sent a message apologising for dumping the lines and running, which thankfully they were very happy about. As daylight broke it started to rain and we had rain virtually the whole 6 hour motor across to Waisai where the ferry goes from. It was so nice to have a cooler passage. Plenty of time to have breakfast and get Luke and Milly packed up, Milly’s luggage is fairly laden with all the grass baskets we gave her for Christmas and her shell collection. They had not been able to book tickets online, so there was some trepidation the ferry might not be running. We anchored at midday, Luke and Rowan dinghied over to the Ferry Terminal and managed to buy tickets, the 2pm ferry was running. A quick lunch and they were off, so sad to say good bye to them, it’s been such fun having them on board. The weather could not have timed it better for them.

Phoebs and Dani were keen to see the Birds Of Paradise in the afternoon, but our bird guy cancelled as it was too wet. We had a quiet afternoon on board. My cold/flu has kicked in and gone to my chest which makes me sound like I smoke 60 cigarettes a day! So I was happy for an easy afternoon. We went in to the resort for supper and joined Patrick and Tante, from the fancy HH carbon Cat. They had their son with them too, which was fun. They have finally got the most important repairs done – a £5 million boat that can’t sail because of rigging issues and they could not motor as the engines had a problem. This is after 6 months! A few other yachts were at the restaurant, we are definitely getting to recognise the cruisers of Raja Ampat!