Indian Ocean Leg 2 Day Seven 16 01.336S 080 50.756E

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Thu 3 Oct 2013 11:16
A good night with steady winds and we made 6-7kts most of the time, making good progress. Squalls were about, but not too many came in our direction and we only got rained on once. Having studied the grib (weather data) files it looks like we could miss the worst of the strong winds due over the next 2 days if we slow down and let it pass in front of us. So this morning we've been trying to keep the speed down and, with the wind increasing, put a 3rd reef in the main and replaced the working genoa with the staysail. That's kept the speed down to 5.5-6kts. The strong winds coming overnight are forecast to come from south of southeast, which is not what we want as we will end up crossing the seas again. They suggest it will change to east southeast later tomorrow and we certainly hope it does so we can keep the wind well behind the beam, which is a lot more comfortable. Noon-to-noon run was 143.5, so okay considering we've slowed down.

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