29th of September, 7th day, Mentawai.
Today we've done lots of kilometres, or better, nautical miles. We left our anchor site at 4 in the morning and arrived around 7.30 in front of a very small beautiful island. There is nothing but a beach, a few palmtrees and waves around it. The wave doesn't look very powerful and I decide to take my 7'4" out again. (I've only been surfing my 6'8" lately) It was a good decision and I had a lot of waves, slow but very long and lovely. At 10.30 we pull the anchor and go north. We stop at Macaronis but there's onshore wind and six other boats, so we go on, to end up in Lances where we surfed the first day. The wave was not as clean as that first day but a bit bigger and we hade a large and good session of lefts. First with King Millenium at our side on which a group of Canarian people stayed. It seems that this is their last day and at 4 they leave the spot for us on our own. During the trip north our fishing lines provided us with a big tunafish again which was inmediately converted in Sushi, delicious as usual. After dinner, while the chef de cuisine, the captain and the owner of the boat play cards and have their daily dose of alcohol, the others relax in the room at the front on the boat with a movie. Meanwhile I write these daily reports and adjust the pictures. I don't regret not seeing the movies as each morning there are plenty of comments of how bad the film was and who will choose a better one for the coming evening.

30th of September, Mentawai. I have no idea where I woke up this morning. We were close to a beach with a very bad right breaking and nobody wanted to go out and surf it. The captain threw out the anchor there and went to bed. We had breakfast asking ourselves what was going on. Finally, someone woke up the captain and asked him to bring us to some better surf. Half an hour later we were back at Lances Left, no wind and cleaner than the day before but slightly smaller. We got good waves untill the wind suddenly turned onshore. It started to rain and it looked like we were not going to do anything else anymore today. We turned around the tip of the peninsula to find offshore winds and arrive at a spot where Freedom 2, the smaller sister or our Freedom 3, was already anchored. I'm told that this is the best right breaking wave in Mentawai, the one you see in all the surf movies, HTC. It's a super hollow wave and at the end of it there is a coral platform called "surgeons table" that you have to avoid at any price. You may have to see a surgeon after visiting it. Bart tells us how dangerous it is. 10 years ago he went down there and his board was on one side of the rock, he on the other, pulled under water by the current so strong that he couldn't reach the ankle velcro to undo his leash. Greg, the australian, was there too that time, and pulled Bart out of it saving his life. Bart never surfed there again. There is about a metre and a half (2-3 foot), it looks small but more than sufficient. Before anyone could get into the water, 3 other boats arrived, probably escaping from the onshore winds too. Greg, Toni and Christophe go in. I decide not to take the risk and prefer to take pictures. Greg, one of the 2 australians that came with us, gets the best out of the waves, disapearing deep into the barrel. That makes me get the best surf pictures I've taken so far. Around the boat there are a dozen Indonesians paddling in their coco trees full of hand made wooden souvenirs of the mentawais. Frank and me buy some to remember this trip. (Frank's been buying for 12 years souvenirs now) Two pieces cost me 200.000 Rhupias which is around 15 Euro. We leave to continue our trip north where we still have to visit a lot of spots. The crossing is rough, the boat is bouncing hard on the waves and it is raining. Night falls and we all have a rest before dinner as it's impossible to have an "aperitif" in these conditions. We eat, movie, computers, telephones and to bed. Who knows where we will surf tomorrow ?

1st of October, Mentawai. I slept in the movie room at the front of the boat because I'm tired of not being able to sleep in our hut. It's too hot, I always wake up completely soaking in sweat and Toni says the airconditioning makes him get ill so I can't turn it higher. At the front I slept very well but wake up early at 6 from the noise of the anchor chain that they were pulling in to proceed our trip further north. Now we are in an area we hadn't been before. We pass by Scarecrowes and Playgrounds, but it's not working and we stop at Nipussi. It's a right of 2 metres at the front, 4 foot surfer's size, quiet fast, at least for me it is. I have never gone so fast on a surfboard. Well, some waves are faster than others. The weather seems to have got a little better, but here there are no forecasts, the weather changes continuously, small depressions show up at any time anywhere and just disappear again. In spring the weather should be better and no wind. The water temperature is amazing. I usually go out for around 3 hours, just in shorts and a lycra to protect me from the sun (in case she appears...) but I could stay out in the water all day if I wanted. Finally a little bit of wind spoils the wave again. We have lunch and move around a bit, check out Pitstop and another spot but there are no waves. Frank and the captain go to the beach for running. Frank needs to train as he will participate in an Iron Man this winter. Sometimes he goes out swimming, out there with the sharks and comes back one and half an hour later... Or there are no sharks or they're afraid of him.
In the afternoon the wind turns again and we go back to Nipussi. It's crowded now and I decide not to go in. The others have a session but the comments are that it wasn't like the morning session. Dinner, movie, sleep. I can imagine it's not always like this with a group of (sometimes young) surfers on holidays, but taking away a few beers in the evening and wine with dinner, there is no alcohol consumption. The atmosphere is absolutely cool and nice but there is no big parties going on. The boat will stay in one piece. I'm sure on some trips the boat gets more abuse.