Day 3

Started off with a bit of a ‘nowt nor sumit’ wind but managed to pole out for a couple of hours before the wind went a bit further to the south and we got back on to a 2 sail reach on port tack – stayed that way the whole day and night not deviating more than +/- 3 miles from the rhumb line..  Sailing pretty conservatively with double reefed main, but speed not too bad (around 7 – 8 knots) and sea conditions OK – still got around 3m swell and 1m wind wave but coming mostly from behind. I might even go as far as to say it was quite pleasant!  We passed Yindee Plus in the early hours of the morning, another British boat which set off a day ahead of us from Cocos.  Another (Iona) set off a day after us and a few more will be leaving between now and Sunday so our SSB net is growing!   We’re all headed for Rodrigues – our friends on MV Dirona are already there but may leave before we arrive (nothing we’ve said I hope!) and other friends on Gallinago, complete with one year old Ivy, left Cocos over two weeks ago. The have had a couple of periods of light winds, but hope to arrive tomorrow evening (Saturday) after quite a long trip.

On these passages you have to be gentle with yourself and ease yourself into the way of things gradually!  The first day is spent moving around the boat very gingerly and catching up on sleep.  The second day is usually a bit better but still not good enough to read – listening to podcasts (courtesy of the BBC!) is the flavour of the day.  By day 3 we are more used to the motion of the boat so easier to move around.  We made a fix to prevent movement on the clevis pin on the bottom of the forestay and then I read the whole day – still not good enough for a bit of brain work on a killer sudoku but gradually getting there!

PS. We have a birthday girl on board today. Happy birthday Jean.

Date and time: 18^th September 10.15 local (GMT + 6.5 hrs)

Position:  S14:48:018 E087:14:33

24 hours distance:  187nm