Day 8, Uh!…..
03 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)
Dear F&F,
Well, the last 24 hours has not been lots of fun. Squalls, rain and most importantly, wind from a less favorable direction. We passed a few more ships on AIS yesterday and had a bit of a start this morning (1/2 hour ago) as we came upon a dilapidated looking 150 foot fishing vessel only a mile away. It was all lit up and motoring the opposite direction toward Indonesia. It still gives me a bit of a wake up call and reminds me of how I do not want to see such vessels. Given where we are, it\’s a needle in haystack meeting, so I\’ll hope it\’s the last one.
Our issue at the moment is that we\’re in the low pressure squall zone and the winds are trying to keep us south. We have to get north and around the lee shore of the Great Chagos Bank which is sitll about 200 miles west of us. It\’s 80 miles (at least), north to south and Salomon is 40 miles to it\’s north. So, we\’ve got to keep speed and work north of it in a NNEasterly wind. Not so much fun. We\’ve a 3.5 meter swell (10-11 feet) from both behind us (east) and in front of us (north) as we work to the northwest. No big breaking seas which is the bonus or you could say, I\’m looking at the glass half full…:-) I just looked and we\’ve done 157 miles. Two more days like this and we\’re home free.
I must fix the stove. The propane safety switch has apparently died off. I have a spare. Just no fun working on it in the lumpy seas.
KIT, more tomorrow, Scott and Nikki