Nice day at sea…..
18 September 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)
Dear F&F,
The last 24 hours of sailing has been some of the steadiest and sublime I\’ve yet experienced in a long ocean passage. The swell is 3 meters from the south (10 feet), but it\’s a 10 second period swell with little or no \”seas\” on top of it. The winds have been between 13 and 19 knots. Very steady, very comfortable. All systems are working well (quick find me a piece of wood!).
Last night we had a bit of excitement when we went to put our large reaching sail away. It did not roll up properly and started to come undone in the wind. Nikki and I got it down and stowed in the sail locker. We\’ll have to sort that out, re-raise it and roll it up correctly. However, with the current conditions, we\’ll most likely use if for awhile as it gives us a bit more speed. We\’ve been sailing anywhere between 6 and 9 knots depending on the moment. The current push is not as strong as the leg to Christmas, but we\’re getting a little help from it for sure. I expect we\’ll do another approximately 180 mile day, giving us less than 160 to go. This means we\’ll be slowing down tonight as to not arrive at Cocos before we have good light.
Christmas Island was a \”high island\” at around 1000 feet and easy to see at distance. It also had no outlying dangers as to reefs, etc. Cocos on the other hand is a true atoll. The coconut trees on it are the tallest objects and it\’s much harder to see until we\’re close. The pass seems easy to enter, but the water is shallow and the lagoon full of \”bombies\” (aka: rocks!). So we do want good light to enter there.
We did see what were most likely four Indonesian fishing boats last night. Hard to believe we\’ve sailed 850 miles from Bali, but we are still fairly close to Indonesia which runs mostly east/west at it\’s southern islands. That will of course change quickly once we leave Cocos.
Depending on what there is to do there and how much we\’re enjoying it, we\’ll stay anywhere from three to seven days. Then off to Chagos, 1500 miles to the NNW.
KIT, Scott and Sleeping Nikki….:-)