Past half way

S/V Galatea update
Neil Scott
Mon 1 Jun 2015 11:04
We are about 600 miles out from Mauritius. So over half way now and still probably looking at arriving on Saturday. After my last squally update, things have settled down quite well. We hit the SE trades early yesterday and after initially sporty 25 knot winds and large, confused seas, things have settled down to a steady 18 to 23 knot range - quieter than sailing on San Francisco bay!! Galatea is going well, storming up and down and through the swell and wind waves. We have to reef, unreef often depending on wind conditions. Luckily we have in-mast furling so theoretically can reef "infinitely" allowing us to make a very small main sail if necessary. Also, we have a staysail which can be furler reefed as well, so in really strong winds 45 knots or more i would use that sail rather than a heavily reefed genoa. Haven't had to do that yet, thank goodness. We are sailing pretty much in a straight line on a heading of 235 degrees with the SE trades off the port beam or the  aft quarter. It moves around between these two points mostly. So, much better than going the other way, to weather, especially with the prevailing 10 foot swells from the south east.

I made boat bread for brunch this morning. Usually have this on Sundays, but it was a bit too rough yesterday. It was very tasty as usual. Bailey will be happy to know that I now have her recipe firmly stuck in my brain. Works every time. Our favorite, because I haven't tried anything else, has dates, raisins and coconut as the filler.

We have just seen a plastic bottle floating by. Apart from some rubbish (plastic bottles and rubber flip flops mainly) washed up in Chagos, we have not seen too much since Padang. It's depressing though to see junk this far from anywhere.

Looking forward to coffee and croissants, or maybe samosas and  chai, for breakfast on saturday.

So, alls well on Galatea.  Until next time,

Neil, chris and mike.

- S/V Galatea
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