Indian Ocean Leg 2 Day Fourteen 18 31.523S 063 30.502E

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Thu 10 Oct 2013 10:50
With a noon-to-noon run of exactly 150 miles we have sailed exactly 2,000 miles so far on this passage. Steady winds again overnight and today at around 18kts and almost dead behind, which is good for Aurora B - she's very stable and goes well. The seas are now right down to perhaps 1.5 to 2 metres, probably as low as they will get unless the wind drops out completely. We still get the bigger (3 to 4m) swell from the south that will set up a roll, but that is much less frequent. It's been a 'sunny spells' kind of day, but with the steady winds, a good sailing day. We finally have both genoas fully out - it seems a long time since we've done that! 70 miles to the south is the small island of Rodriguez, a sister island to Mauritius. Some of yachts taking part in the SSB net are stopping there for a few days and we would have done had we more time, but we haven't so it's on to Mauritius. Looking at the chart, we came across the Marie Celeste Fracture Zone, a trench of sorts in the sea bed, in the night. It'll be interesting to look that up on the Internet. Still quite a bit of shipping and we had yet another case of a ship passing between Jacaranda and ourselves, this time when only 4 miles apart. It's quite remarkable, but maybe not so much as the first time the other day. We are now clearly in one of the main shipping routes and so the chances are higher. The first time we were in the middle of the ocean and on no particular route (other than that ship's it would seem!). As I write this the chart table gentle sways from side to side and when the southerly swell goes through, it's no longer gentle! Then it can be at a steep angle and I have to wedge my foot to stop sliding off the seat. The laptop has never moved, even in the worst of the bad weather, but not so the wireless mouse. That goes walkabout across the chart table, managing sometimes to right click all on its own - it's better switched off until needed.

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