TODAY’S WORD FROM THE DONKEY:

We have gone banana’s! We are currently 70nm away from being the first people to ever row across the Java Sea! It’s been a grey, overcast and wet last 24 hours but we don’t care as the wind has been right up our tail pipe with speeds not dropping below 2 knots for the entire period. We can right now just make the outline of Madura Island – some 20+nm to the south of us. Fingers crossed the wind stays blowing from the North West and the currents are kind as we cross from the Java Sea into the Bali Sea tomorrow afternoon. The Java Sea is very shallow and depths seem to average around 70m, however tomorrow when we cross into the Bali Sea we will truly feel some deep water when the bottom drops away to over 1000m water depth. Last night we were surrounded by over 38 fishing boats and I felt a little sorry for the fish – one of them even jumped out of the water and into the cabin to wake Charlie up with a fright! The area we are in now is much quieter for vessel traffic.

Captain Axe and able bodied seaman Charlie.