No one said it was going to be easy. Everything we'd read about the Indian Ocean promised strong winds and big, side-on swells. Well, we haven't been dissapointed!
We left Cocos Keeling a week ago, waving a fond farewell to Ariel IV, happy in the knowledge that they wouldn't be left alone, as 2 boats had arrived the day before. As we raised our sails and crossed the lagoon, a pod of dolphins played in our bow waves. They had welcomed us in the same way when we had arrived 10 days earlier, now they came to say goodbye.
Once we were out in the open ocean, we could see the sails of Shuti. They had left about an hour before us, and Moby ended up leaving around noon, about 4 hours after us. We sailed with Shuti all day, happy in the comfort of another boat nearby.
The first three days were tough. The seas were very unsettled and the wind was strong. We encountered squalls with blinding rain and winds up to 38 knots. On Saturday morning Moby whizzed past us (they are bigger, lighter and faster), and are now about 200 miles ahead of us. We sailed together with Shuti, maintaining radio contact 3 times a day, trading stories of our days and analyzing weather.
On the 4th day, after a terrible night with storms and lightening, the wind died. It was even worse than the storms we had endured. We wallowed around making little to no progress, the washing machine like sea even more pronounced, without the wind to push us through the swells. The skies were grey, and morale aboard Cool Runnings was low!! We spoke to Shuti on the VHF, and Momi told us of a Gale warning he had received in his weather download. We did our weather download, and sure enough, there was a warning for gale force winds about 200miles south of us.
As we went into the evening, we felt ourselves on the edge of the gale. The winds increased, and for the next 36 hours we had winds of 28 - 30knots, sometimes sustained 33 knots. While it was strong, it also allowed us to make good speed, and we quickly covered the distance we had lost the previous day. While the water was an angry black with frothing white caps and huge swells, the sun was shining, and it made everything all right!!
By Wednesday morning we had lost radio contact with Shuti, as the distance between us grew. We're now in regular email contact with both Shuti and Moby, and all is well. The winds returned to a more manageable 20 - 25 and we are looking at arriving in Chagos at the very best, Sunday, July 23rd, but more realistically on Monday, July 24th. Right now (Thursday, July 20th), we have 555 miles to go, and are doing 7.5 knots in 21 knots of wind. We have 2 reefs in the main, and about 90% jib out.
We must be in a shipping lane, because we're passing our second ship of the day! This morning a cargo ship that was over a mile long, passed a few miles in front of us. He was headed to Brazil. Right now I'm watching a slightly smaller cargo ship (518 ft long) on the AIS. He is headed to Singapore. I've just been able to spot him and he will pass about 6 miles behind us.
So morale on Cool Runnings is improving! I try to keep it up by feeding the crew! I made some muffins this morning, and even though they flopped for some reason, (they didn't rise), I was assured they were still delicious! (The bar is not very high!!) I make yoghurt every morning and try to come up with some different things for lunch. Today I think I will grill the wraps we have on board, and make cheese quesadillas! We are counting down the days and nights until we can be at anchor, watch a sunset and lift our glasses in toast of another 1,500 miles of Ocean crossed!
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
No comments:
Post a Comment