Position           05:57.44 N 088:53.54 E

Date                 1200 (UTC+7) Thursday 25 February 2016

Distance run    in 24hrs 170nm over the ground, 162nm through the water

Trip total         650nm over the ground, 561nm through the water

To go to          Uligan, Maldives 960nm – 1,605nm total route distance

No prizes for the observant, yesterday’s diary entry was for Wednesday 24 and not Tuesday.

We continue to make good progress with a strengthening wind compensating for the decrease in favourable current; we have made 90nm progress due to current alone so far, which cannot be bad.  Overnight there seemed to be an increase in shipping all following a similar track to ourselves.  We were tucked in about 2nm behind Flomaida which gave the ships a bigger target area to avoid and a number made course alterations to avoid us.  At 0630 Desh Suraksha an Indian registered tanker of 250 metres on route to Singapore doing 11.5 knots altered course to avoid us and I called him up on VHF radio to thank the watch keeper.  We had quite a chat and he was very surprised to find a a couple in a “small” boat crossing such a large area of ocean.  Someone else must have been listening as we then got a greeting “to the adventurous sailors” from CMA CMG Rhone a cargo (container) ship of 300m on route to Port Said doing 19 knots.  It did not feel lonely.

Dinner was a great beef curry, batch prepared before departure using beef from the Omak Butchers in Whangarei.  The Mate is gradually working her way through the freezer.