Allegedly, Sanya – in Hainan province, a large island just off the mainland in the South China Sea – is the Hawaii of China. This is bit oversold, but it is a very popular domestic tourist destination and a very busy city. Also, weirdly, quite a lot of Russians.

We made it here yesterday after a 24 day voyage from Australia. Although extremely hot (I spent the whole time in shorts & sandals & t-shirt, even at night) and many very frustrating wind holes and light wind sailing, I actually quite enjoyed it. Plenty of downwind sailing in the trade winds (once we reached them anyway) and some squalls in the night giving some exciting helming and unplanned sail changes – we finally managed to explode our lightweight spinnaker after 20,000 miles by flying it in a 25-knot shower – it is only rated for about 12 knots. You can read my and GT’s Clipper blogs on the subject here and here. It’s after events like these that sails acquire names, and our Code 1 is now called Esmerelda St Martin.

Finally I managed my first crossing of a Chinese multi lane highway this evening, on the way from the cash machine to the ‘English bar’ in the centre of the Dadonghai area of Sanya. I’m pretty sure that was far more dangerous than any ocean sailing…

Edit: added links.