The rainbow never sets

seemed to have been an endless time, the yacht became calmer and held her direction. We could hear the engine chuffing again. We were through! There was great rejoicing by our students, who promptly started singing the Indonesian version of "Now thank we all our God." I must say, I had never more fervently sung, nor found it more meaningful, than at that time, especially the lines:

"and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills É"

We were free, and we were through! But our joy was not to last for long. By about 2 a.m. a stiff breeze blew up from the south, where we were heading, and the yacht began to go up and down in the waves. Each time it came down it sprayed us all wet. The moon had disappeared and it became pitch dark. One by one the others near me left the crowded deck and scrambled for some shelter in the back, where there was standing room only. Should I huddle up with them or should I persevere? The decision was taken from me. I became violently sea-sick and the crew told me to go into the cabin, which had four bunks. They didn't want to lose me over-board. Below deck the rocking of the boat seemed even worse. The air was full of the smell of hot engine oil. Poor Mintje was already there stretched out on one bunk, being sick from time to time like myself. Later I heard that only five of our students never got sick. I wished the night would pass, but it seemed to take ages. By first daylight I went up on deck again, and there I began to recover.

We were now sailing in the lee of Timor, which was a great relief to us miserable looking passengers. The sun was warming us again, and a rainbow appeared, spanning over the sea and touching, as it were, the mountains of Timor. God seemed to be saying: "here is my sign of hope for you. I have not abandoned you. Look, there is a bridge from sea to land." From then on I actually enjoyed sailing along the northern shores of Timor, but I still couldn't eat anything, not that there was anything much to eat anyway. Then it got hot. In the afternoon a strong wind came up and the yacht hoisted its sail. We were picking up speed, and no one was sick anymore. No one had any idea how far we had travelled, nor how soon we would see Kupang appearing just around the next corner. We looked out for this sight all day. Then the sun set in the west, but we seemed still far away from any human habitation. After sailing in the dark for nearly two hours, we saw at long last a tiny little light in the distance, then more. This must be Kupang, we thought, but no one uttered a word. It still took us more than an hour before we landed on the beach of Kupang harbour. I phoned Alison that we had arrived. She was greatly relieved as she had not heard anything from us all this time. She came to pick us up by car. There were about six of us, the others had made their own way home. Lisa had something for us to eat, good Lisa, and then I

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