Smooth seas, no wind - motoring

S/V Galatea update
Neil Scott
Tue 19 May 2015 11:29
After a good 36 hours of nice sailing after making the turn to go to Chagos, we have been motoring for a further 36 hours - no wind. Luckily, because the seas are so smooth and devoid of wind wave and chop, we can maintain a decent speed forward at low engine revs which dramatically improves our fuel consumption rates. Not necessarily the best treatment for diesel engines though which prefer to be worked hard but we have to do what we have to do to get ourselves to Chagos. We are about 160 miles from out from our initial place of anchorage within the Salomon atoll. Seems close, but at our current speed, 4.5 knots, we should get to Chagos sometime Thursday after a looooong trip.

I can no longer get GRIB file weather updates which we are dependent for weather planning. My iPad app for these and other apps stopped working the other night after i tried to use an app for star watching. Unless i can get the same app working on my iPhone, we will have to do the best we can without those files until we get to Mauritius. Too bad, but we should be ok.

Talking about stars, we have had a huge improvement in general weather conditions. We seem to have left behind the windy, rainy (intense at times for both), squally weather that kept us on our toes for much of the first 1500 miles out from Padang. Continually being on the look out for the ominous black, heavy clouds that seemingly pop up from nowhere and unleash their wind and rain with a vengeance, can lead to stressful conditions. But for now we have had clear weather with small puffy clouds and wonderful starry nights - stars from one horizon to the other, and not a light or building or plane or whatever to get in the way and spoil the view.

Ok, next update scheduled for once we arrive in Chagos.

All's well on Galatea.

Neil, mike and chris-miss-tree

- S/V Galatea
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