generous. We traded a few gifts for fresh produce, just so frustrated - and the paw paw is the best ever. Dived the reef, snorkelled the reef - brilliant.
Champagne beach is very pretty with its white soft sand, but a little commercialised, so we only stayed one night and moved on to Port Olry (recommended by Peter - thanks).
Port Olry is simply Heaven. Dived, snorkelled, ate Lobster, Coconut crab, rubber fish and soggy chicken! Sundowners were fabulous. Boys sailed around in wheelbarrow tubs. Fishermen showed their catch - some of which I would have put in the aquarium rather than eat.
Alfie ended in the dog-house for deleting Bob's photos of sharks, even though they were only small!
Dived Turtle Island reef - awesome, just awesome. Went up to the Ri-ri blue hole, and the local owner and children showed us how to swing in and have a bath in the beautiful blue fresh water. Brilliant. We are enjoying the cocktails and culinary delights of Oyster Island resorts 5 star chef tonight, all rather nice.
Tomorrow we will visit Philips village, after he came and invited us in his dug-out canoe, so if you don't here from us again we have decided to stay and settle in to the "village life".

for 1hr and 30mins; l would say we are working in the wrong country!
With all the legal documents completed and accepted, plus two lots of payment, thank you very much, we were finally free to explore.
Provisions needed replenishing, which took us off to the local market. We scouted round the market then went off in different directions to buy the best produce from different stalls.
The chef was given a night off on Monday. We wined and dined at a local resort who is owned by an Australian with 2 brothers that live in Mackay! Food was yum and will most probably return there when we restock for the return passage.
Sailed round to Palikulo Bay and stopped off at Million Dollar point en route. The point provided excellent snorkelling as a number of military vehicles were driven into the sea by the Americans following WW2.So we jumped in to have a look only to be told by a local from the shore line we were required to pay even though we had provided our own transport and equipment!
Palikulo Bay was picturesque. Bright blue clear water and sandy beaches. Met a few locals and started giving away our gifts; the delightful smile on a young boy's face as we gave him a soccer ball will remain impregnated in our memories. Managed to get our first dive in; much of the reef has been damaged by the cyclone, but there was evidence of recovery happening.
Currently, we are moored up at Aore island and have been snorkelling this morning. Just waiting for my dough to rise before I bake some rolls for lunch. So will have to say au revoir for now.

PS There is a prize for the first person who can identify Alfie's bird in the attached photo.....good luck!

our little Webber bbq, and funnily enough, Chef Liz has some flour and things for making pizza dough. So homemade pizzas today. Now this is exciting, cos we don't even make pizza at home, so to try it on board a yacht 100's of miles from anywhere is pretty daring stuff. Unfortunately our mushrooms had to be donated to the fish,as they became a little rank, so we have no mushroom for the pizza topping. The pizzas turned out supremo perfecto, the only thing missing was our "delivery boy" James.
What with attempting fresh bread for the first time yesterday, pizzas today, I wonder what tomorrow might bring - cake maybe? (dreaming I think!)
I also received a "ships stamp" for Serena-T ( many thanks Sarah) which has turned out brilliant, so we can now stamp official customs documents.
An odd item that appeared was a dressing gown! Now why would you need one of those on a boat in the tropics? As it happens, I write this sat in the cockpit on the 8-12 watch, in a 12 knot cool breeze, yep you guessed, wearing a dressing gown!!!. It's nice and warm and cosy, enough to make you sleepy on watch. I just hope I don't go overboard wearing it, I think I'll sink like a rock when it gets wet!
So where is everyone, there is nobody else on this ocean? Oh of course, your all busy at work! And for those not working, you are probably sat in front of the fire with a blanket over your knees!
For those following the "updates", you will know we had some illness to deal with at the start which curbed appetites for several days, so after Alfie complaining about the number shown on our scales at home, I am sure if she stood on them now she'd have much better things to say about them!
Fishing so far has been unfruitful, even towing the whizz bang super lures that Tom made for us, but maybe we have been going too fast for much of the time. Was hoping to see a nice Mahi-mahi, as apparently they are yummy-yummy. There's still time, and we will be going a lot slower for the rest of the trip as the wind is fading away to nothing for a couple of days.
Seen plenty of birds, feathered, and lots of boobies too (also feathered)! We even went through a "gang" of birds fishing, but alas, whilst they were busy filling their tummies full of fresh fish, our lures still came up with nothing. I Never have been a good fish catcher!
Alfie was very helpful when the going got slow, she sat on the transom and finned with her feet, which gave us an extra knot, but she soon got tired (or bored) and gave up! No stamina these old ducks!
We seem to have settled into a daily rhythm now, preparing food etc, cleaning up, assessing the weather gribs, tweaking sheets, spinnaker up / spinnaker down, attending to Ray the auto-pilots incessant alarms every time the wind shifts etc etc. All this keeps us busy to the point the days and miles are slipping by really quickly - just wondering when the pace of this "cruising" lark is going to slow down!
Anyway, enough of my babble, Ray is calling for attention again, so will deal with that and then try to work out how to get all this sent into space and bounced back again for you all to peruse.
Many thanks again for all the birthday wishes, oh and James, you shouldn't be so rude to your father, remember your birthday is just a couple of weeks off, and you are not such a spring chicken yourself these days!
Au revoir for now.

/ position report, but we are learning. I think we time-warped to Brisbane at one stage!!
Customs were great - no problems there, although Sarah was a little spooked by their guns.
So we just need to settle into a lookout routine, and enjoy the breeze whilst we have it.

Will check in again soon