Twenty-two past midnight and still moving along at an excellent speed, 5.5 – 6.5 knots. So far, the weather maps, which I download twice a day, don’t give us as favorable weather a few days ahead of us, but the weather pattern we are in seems to move with us. So that’s good. We are taking the wind with us.
Seas are still pretty unpredictable, and last night, having dinner with bowls in our hands, the captain managed to get his chili all over the cockpit. Just that one second of not paying attention, or be unprepared, or just not liking the served-up meal will do it.
Yesterday Steve said he feels like he is being beaten to a pulp. And indeed, that’s how it feels. The Indian Ocean is relentless, very different from the Pacific Ocean, with its long swell. Here the waves always seem in a state of confusion and are very steep. Typically one comes toward us, towers above us, about to swallow us up, but then, of course, at what seems like the last moment, scoops us up, lifts us upon its crest, and unceremoniously rolls us off its backside into a valley, or a next wave. This rolling into, or rather hitting the next wave can be unpleasant, to say the least, and is often accompanied by loud bangs, stuff flying around, including us, and water coming over the gunwales, sides of the boat, into the cockpit. And at such a particular moment, Steve lost sight of his chili.
Apart from its speed, the wind doesn’t change much direction-wise, so we have been on the same tac since we left Cocos Keeling, meaning the sail, we’re only flying the genoa right now, has been on the same side of the boat all along and hardly needs adjusting at all. Because of the angle, it is no use to have the main sail up, as it would obstruct the genoa, giving us more heeling, and would not increase our speed.
We only touch the helm when a gust of wind overpowers the Hydrovane, a wind-powered steering device, or when a wave throws us off course. Then, we get the boat back on track and let the wind-vane take over again. We also have an auto-pilot, an electronic steering device that works beautifully, although sometimes gets overpowered too, but uses too much electricity, more electricity than the solar panels generate.
Hydrovane is a brand name. I have written about the workings and uses of wind-vanes and auto-pilots on my website ‘tourstalestravels.com‘ on a previous sailing trip. The Hydrovane and the Monitor wind-vane, the one I wrote about, are by no means the same but serve the same purpose and are both powered by wind. They really are ingenious pieces of equipment. So if interested, look it up on tourstalestravels.com.
It’s almost two in the morning, and the moon just came out for a peek from behind a dark cloud, illuminating the boat’s wake. Such an incredible sight.
Our first stop in the Mauritius islands group will likely be Rodrigues, the island nearest us, 990 nm away. We’ll be there in eight days at the rate we’re going right now. But ………Who knows?
