Good morning Starshipper’s,

Yet another glorious morning in paradise. The sun shining brightly in the blue sky allowing it’s light to stretch far out beyond our view. The morning like the others started to get very busy as hurrying chase boats raced to and fro across the harbour picking up and dropping off passengers. After spending the morning tending to some inside teak, DJ and I headed out for a paddle around the harbour.

We ventured off to a section of the islands surrounded by reef. As we glided across the surface our paddles made the only ripple in the glassy water. So beautiful that your reflection bounced back at you from the coral garden beneath. We talked along the way and found a few small cuts that we were able to pass through in the kayaks. Sections of the shrubbery growing down towards the waters edge beamed with drops of water from an early morning shower. On some of the leaves you could see the twinkle of the sun as it played about high in the sky. Simply beautiful.

Michael, Peter, Trevor and Norbert spent most of the morning deciphering many charts and infomation that had been gathered in an attempt to plan the next segment of our journey through Indonesia. All seemed to be developing well and rest assured a lot of careful thought is going into the process. It was then time for Norbert to have James in a twist with his computer which he seemed to find quite fascinating, completely captivated with the design and trinkets that accompanied it. James after pointing out almost all of the features to me went about connecting the laptop to STARSHIP’s computer system so that Norbert could work on it.

After returning to STARSHIP DJ began preparing lunch - a Chicken Cesar salad. Tasty. Enrico had the day off from the galley and helped Dave and Monika outside. The three of them had an adventure of their own this morning. They visited the yachts in the harbour and asked about their travels and if any of them had any info on the in’s and out’s of Indonesia, our next port of call. With some helpful information they returned to STARSHIP and shared the information with the crew.

Peter all smiles after his first dive.

Shortly after lunch Navot from Fish 'n Fin’s joined us for a little adventure down the coast of Palau two some of the islands to the south. While on passage I spent a little time reading and caught five minutes of forty winks and miraculously we had arrived. A little like ‘I dream of Jennie’ - all I had to do was blink! Peter and I then took a little dip into the underwater world while James, DJ, Michael, Navot and Norbert did a little island hoping. Peter and I drifted down beneath the surface at a spot Navot had suggested to find a garden of Giant Clams (Triacna crocea). There would have been at least 40 of them scattered about the seafloor. It is wonderful to watch the face of someone new to diving and see their surprise and enjoyment of the experience, which is what I noticed with Peter. After spending 20 or so minutes venturing along the reef wall we returned to the shallows and did a little more looking around to see what was about. Two small flounder (Bothus pantherinus) hovered around the entrance to a gobie's (Family Gobiidae) hole waiting for some action. Swimming along further we notice several sea cucumbers (Family Holothuriidae) spawning. We reached the surface and Peter wanted more so doing a little more splashing about we saw a small Fire fish (Pterois volitans) before it was time to breach the surface.

The beautiful Ngermehaus Islands.

As the sun passed down behind some clouds that had formed in the sky Navot guided us through some of the smaller islands and we were able to capture some beautiful images on film. The sun almost gone, brought with it a rain shower which kindly proceeded to drown us all. We returned to STARSHIP, dried off and prepared for dinner. Now warm and dry the crew and our guests are all watching a movie. It has been another beautiful day in paradise. As I am used to saying about my home, it is beautiful one day and perfect the next.

Yesterday in my thoughts I wondered how the Islands of Palau may have appeared to those hear during the war and today I received an email from a gentleman named 'Bud' that portray a picture :

A quote from a Marine's dairy !! "Patches of thick tangled pea green jungle! It's mangrove studded swamps that nurtured alligators, malaria, dengue Fever, tulagi rot and the dreaded diarrhea!! Fouled water, lousy chow and parasites by the billions -- and always the Japanese lurking in potholes, groves, ravines and air raids - air raids - air raids!! Bursting bombs - popping AA guns -- the grumble of Naval guns offshore with the night fireworks of the battles at sea"

Till tomorrow happy sailing,

Lou.