0500- Awoke with the sunrise but decided to stay in bed a little longer. Watch doesn’t start until 0600.
0600- Roll out of bed and greet Mr. Brady and the helm. Him and Jens are still splitting up Uli’s shift until he feels better.
0610- Heat up some water and make instant coffee. Can’t be bothered to make a whole press for just myself. Delicious.
0615- Check our course and find we’ve done very well overnight. The wind has held and we made great progress. We are only 70 NM from west most Cape of Madagascar (Cap St. Andre) 0620- Everyone is asleep and I have Delos all to myself. She is gliding along and I make a slight course correction to take us more South. The wind is cooperating and we are making 6-7 knots in small seas. Grey skies but still a very beautiful morning at sea. I decide to do some reading and get lost in 3 Years In A 12 Foot Boat for a while.
0800- It’s time for the cruiser net, participated in by all boats underway from Madagascar to South Africa. We haven’t used our SSB in ages and I just got it to turn on by replacing a fuse yesterday. I can hear all the boats surprisingly well because everyone is close. It seems we have caught up with most of the fleet overnight. Still having problems transmitting though and nobody can copy our transmissions. Oh well, still fun to listen in.
0805- Karin on watch and I am relieved of my duties. I ponder what to do with the entire day ahead of me. First thing on the agenda- a bit to eat. The rest will follow ?
0830- I decide that I smell terrible and take a shower. Feeling nice and refreshed settle in for a few hours of reading.
0945- We get hit by our first squall in a long time. 30 knots out of the N with lightening and rain. Some lightening is so close it shuts down all our nav instruments and GPS. Scary. I reboot the system and everything comes back online. The squall passes us and leaves us bobbing in confused swells with no wind.
1200- After waiting for the wind to return we decide to motor. We’ve had enough of the sails slapping and slamming back and forth in the non-existent wind and big swells. Delos is moving again and the motion at sea is back to normal. It’s afternoon siesta time, head down for a little nap. Life is good ?
1400-1800- No Wind, Delos motors along slowly. Brady checks the weather and the outlook isn’t good. Not much wind for the next few days. We shut down the engine when the breeze picks up just enough to sail again. Sailing slowly at 3 knots but at least we’re not using any fuel now. I do some more reading in the calm afternoon.
1800-2000- Put in a little video editing time on the computer, taking advantage of the calm conditions.
2000- Wind totally dies and Delos is flapping around in the swells. Nothing to be done but crank the engine back up. I will need to monitor our fuel situation closely and check the levels tomorrow. Dinner is left over fiesta chicken surprise with added pasta. Nothing much to report, off to bed.
0200- Watch time dead of night. We are 8 miles from rounding Cape St. Andre and turning more south. Still no wind. We have some current against us now slowing us down even more. Bummer. Watch passes quickly with nothing to report except before leaving I installed Rosetta Stone on the Navigation Computer so can now do some Swedish lessons on watch. He He.
0400- Roll into bed and turn in for the morning.
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