Day 2

Once we were back on track with the genoa poled out we had a very pleasant day – not too much sea – probably under 2m swell and not much wind waves.  As we were able to sail downwind, the waves were also coming more from behind so not too rolly. Wind hovered around 15 knots from the east most of the day. We are not going terribly quickly, but there is no point. Reunion is a three day, three night sail from Rodrigues, so there is no need to push hard to try and save a few hours. All we need to do is average around 160nm per day and so far that has meant a comfortable easy passage.

The current seems to be quite variable. Far from a continuous westerly set promised by the charts and pilot books, it’s clear that the current is a series of large eddies. Early evening yesterday we had almost 2kts with us, then after a few hours it was against us and stayed that way most of the night. As a result the sea started to kick up and our speed dropped to around 5 knots – back to the “things that go bump in the night” scenario. This morning we have a cross current pushing us south so we are making around 7 knots in around 15 knots of breeze. The RTOF gribs suggest that the eddies should straighten out as we pass south of Mauritius in a couple of hours, then we should have favourable current again.

Mauritius is about 20m to our north. We can see some mountains, and amazingly we have one bar signal on the phone. We should get a bit closer as the day goes on, and who knows we might get a quick internet contact.

We have been trying to do SSB communication with a couple of boats in Mauritius and one on his way to Rodrigues from Cocos but not very good propagation. Just about managed to exchange positions, but that was it. Plenty of shipping movement with some getting as close as 3 miles! Lots going to Singapore.   No cetaceans and only that odd sea bird.

Date and time: 11^th October  10.30 local (GMT + 4 hrs) 

Position:   S20:43:592 E057:38:296

24 hours distance:  180 nm