Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 25 14S 048 46E and motorlng at 5.0 knots on a course of 240M. The wind is ENE at 5 knots with negligible sea and long 1.5m SSW swell. There's barely a cloud in the sky and it is a lovely day, except for the lack of wind! Our day's run was 117nm and we have 940nm to run.
We've had very little wind since mid-afternoon yesterday. The 15 knot breeze gradually died away to 6-8 knots from the NNE. We sailed along at around 3 knots for a while but motored from 1600 to 1900. Then the breeze shifted to the E and we could once again sail. The sails were slatting a lot but not violently. Gradually a new swell from the SSW came in which increased tha slatting. We've been motoring since 0530 this morning.
We initially motored W this morning to ensure we stayed in the SW current flow we've been enjoying for the last day or more. We're now heading for our waypoint SE of Madagasacar with 0.5 to 1.0 knot current with us. We expect the wind to pick up from the E over the next 12 hours.
We've been busy on the radio this morning. The usual sked at 0300UTC on 6227kHz showed everyone is making progress, but those of us still E of Madagascar are having a slow time. Those who have rounded Madagascar have good wind. Our friends on Vulcan Spirit, who left Reunion 10 days ago reported "Africa in sight". We also tried SAMnet (South African Maritime network) at 0630UTC on 14316kHz. We had been in contact with them via email and Sam swung his antenna in our direction. We could hear them quite well and reported our position, receiving a weather forecast for our area in return. We helpful!
Looking forward to having a sailing breeze soon. No doubt we'll have plenty of wind in due course!
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