Movin' along

(Reporting from Anne's favorite blogging spot: aft corner of the cockpit, in a patch of shade and breeze.)

We're flying along under jib, main and mizzen, in a nice breeze... from not quite the direction we'd like, but we're happy to head a bit extra south around Madagascar. The winds in the past 24 hours have been, for lack of a better word, "interesting" - sudden odd (and large) windshifts associated with small squalls, or sometimes just in the middle of nowhere, for no apparent reason. It feels like we've ranged through nearly every sail combination we have in the two days we've been out.

But in sharp contrast to the previous long leg from Cocos to Mauritius, the Southern Indian Ocean is being very gentle so far, with only mild swells and light breeze. We've had a few lines of clouds and some very occasional rain overnight, but otherwise the weather's quite beautiful. Traffic is pretty light, as well, with just a few tankers and one big fishing boat, and the WARC fleet scattered out along the course past Madagascar.

We're settling into things, our night watches (1800-0900) very mellow - three hours on, as much as twelve off (the joys of sailing with a crew of 5!) and one on, four off during the day (0900-1800). Regular raids on the snack cabinet, plus Sofia's afternoon creations (Saturday was peaches and custard on pastry, yum-oh) keep us going between proper (also yummy) meals. Yup, as usual, thoughts turn to food at sea.

Ray, the trusty auto-pilot, has been working wonderfully so far, making for even more relaxed watches than ever. Yay for technology.

There's been a nice scattering of seabirds - storm petrels, terns and shearwaters. Anne & Heidi are hoping for an albatross, maybe south of Madagascar. Flying fish occasionally go zinging off, as well.

Otherwise all is quiet aboard the WT, with much music-listening on headphones, book reading and napping in between watch work.

We're hoping the wind will settle back into a southeasterly flow later today, and we can tack over and make a few more knots towards our waypoint off the coast of the island.

That's all for now,

- Anne, for WT
01 Nov 2010 10:56 UTC
24 22.072 S
50 40.015 E