Wednesday 21^st May 2014

The day started dull and cloudy but with lighter swell that makes life easier. The swell is supposed to be coming from the south but has been fairly constantly from east south east. The winds eased last night and we are now getting a steady 18 knots sailing under a reefed genoa at 5.5 to 6 knots. We measure our day's run at 07:30 and the last 24 hours gave us 136 miles.

As the morning moves on the swell is growing bigger and steeper so the motion is getting jerkier. The Hydrovane is working very well, steering a good course whatever the sea state and coping with the strong winds we have been getting. We need the sun on the solar panels to charge up the batteries. Since we're not having to use the electric autopilot the greatest draw on our power use if from the fridges, navigation lights at night, the 12 volt charger which we use to charge various gear like the satellite phone and the laptops one of which must always be running as it has Open CPN, the navigation package we are using at the moment. On these long passages we try not to use the boats own integrated Raymarine system as it uses oodles of power. We have a 3^rd navigation package on the IPad called Navionics which is also very useful and a comforting back up. Whenever there is lightning close by both the laptop and IPad go with the sat phone, hand-held GPS and hand-held VHF radio into our Faraday cage i.e. the oven which is stainless steel.

We ran the engine for a bit to charge batteries and power the water maker but the engine water wasn't coming through. Investigation showed that a new impeller was needed, they are supposed to last for 500 hours of motoring but this genuine Volvo part has done nothing like that, we replaced it and will get another sort in future same as the expensive air filters.

The afternoon has brought lighter seas and lesser wind which makes life more comfortable, as well as sunshine and a trade wind sky. The genoa has been eased out and we are keeping up our speed hoping for around 140 miles in this 24 hour block. Our speed is well over 6 knots now so if we can keep this up through the night, which seems likely, we will achieve that target nicely.

Dark now on the 00.00 to 04.00 watch except for the moon which is waning, we have just less than half of it but behind us with its gleam on the water following in our wake. Nicer to have it ahead but good to see it anyway. Otherwise total darkness; we haven't seen a single vessel since we started this crossing. We are crossing the Ninety East Ridge which is the mid ocean ridge for the Indian Ocean at a mere 2000 metres deep. This is where the sea floor spreading that is pushing Africa and Australia occurs….hopefully rather slowly as they are quite far enough apart already.

The Ninety Degree Ridge also marks the point where we become ¾ circumnavigators!