Gili Bodo.

Wednesday 20th August
Position: South 08*22'173 East 120*00'940

We have finally found our paradise island and are currently anchored off the white sandy beaches of Gili Bodo island. It was a little tricky arriving yesterday with not the best light to enter through the reef but once again with the help of Gunnar snorkeling around we found a nice little patch of sand in 15 feet of water. The coral here is the best we've seen in a long time and the water clarity is also very good, we can sit on the boat and look down at the reef and see all the colourful fish swimming around! The island is completely uninhabited except for the odd fisherman who comes by to check his nets and hang out in the bay now and then. The only other sign of life we've seen is wild monkeys wondering on the beach and digging for crabs or some kind of shell fish... they look so strange just taking a stroll on the sand and looking out to sea!
Last night and tonight we've been ashore along with Ingvil and Gunnar off S/V Helen Kate and Eli & Joern off S/V Silene to build a fire and cook some bread on a stick and baked potatoes in the coals. We're the only boats here so we can pretty much do what we like which means we end up staying late into the night burning just about all the pieces of drift wood on the beach! Tonight some fishermen came ashore to use our fire to cook a giant parrot fish for their dinner and some 'Chumi Chumi' (squid to us) which they had just caught and which they put whole on to a stick and cooked them very much like we do our bread. They gave us the squid, of which only Jimmy was delighted with, then took their fish and left...if only we could communicate with them I think it would have been a pretty interesting conversation!

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