Day 5

Well it was a bit of a story yesterday so maybe today we’ll keep it short!  Winds and seas much the same most of the day (around 25knots and 3m) so kept up speed around 8 – 8.5 knots.  During the night the wind went round to the east so we changed course slightly.  We had been sailing north of the rhumb line so that when the wind did go round we could still stay on a 2 sail reach- so far so good.  We’ve not downloaded a grib file yet today so are waiting to see if the light winds from behind are still forecast before we make any decision as to where we set our course later today.

There is so much stress on the boat in these seas that the fix Matt had made to hold in the clevis pin on the forestay had worked itself slightly loose so he spent another sweaty few hours making mk IV version out of a D bolt and aluminium bar.  I’m just the gofer and hold the things in place whilst does the real work with the saws and drills etc.  When he checked this morning it hasn’t moved so hopefully it will stay like that. 

Our friends on Gallinago have reached Rodrigues after a long passage from Cocos – we really have to take our hats off to them sailing with a 1 year old – I know I couldn’t deal with the dirty nappies etc!  Another boat has joined the net and one more should leave Cocos today – it’s great to have ‘company’ on the SSB twice a day.

We’re now half way - yippee! It’s been a fast run so far, we have averaged 198.7 nm per day for 5 days solid!

Date and time: 20^th September 10.15 local (GMT + 6.5 hrs)

Position:  S16:27:203 E080:25:376

24 hours distance:  198 nm