Indonesia

students. It was a warm and tearful farewell. We all managed to scramble on deck. Apart from the two crew, there were four additional passengers! I don't know how, but we all managed to find a spot on deck for each of our bottoms, and the anchor was lifted. Suddenly there was a commotion on shore. Shouting and screaming. Out of the masses of farewelling people emerged the smiling face of Mintje. She had missed the MAF plane and she was going to come with us after all. She had nearly missed our yacht too.

On Board SILIWATI

Very slowly, the SILIWATI pulled away from the pier and chuffed into the harbour. We knew it would take a long time before we were out in the open, and so we enjoyed the scenery and the calm. It was getting dark and a silvery moon made the sea and the surrounding very romantic. But then we came near the spot between Alor and Pantar which we had just casually observed on our inward journey. The churning waters of the changing tide looked quite threatening from close by. My courage sank. I watched with anxious eyes the whirling and swirling waters come ever so close to the rim of the overcrowded yacht. Then we plunged into a huge whirl. We had heard in Kalabahi, that many people had been sucked under water by these whirls, and we all thought, our time had come. Our heavy laden yacht was tossed about like the proverbial match box. A picture flashed into my mind of Paul being shipwrecked near Malta, but there was no beach in sight. We were far away from shore, heading towards the open sea. God must have heard our prayers, for after what

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