14:58.27S 44:05.14E

COG 225T

SOG 5.3kts

Sea slight

Weather sunny and clear

Until this afternoon the wind was consistently from the NNE and we were sailing with full mainsail and poled out genoa. At one point we thought this might continue but now the wind has backed to the NNW and we have turned more to the west we are on a starboard fetch with the apparent wind forward of the beam.

Given the light conditions we have been making slow but comfortable progress. Much of yesterday we had adverse current with a careful route to get out of this as quickly as possible and into favourable current further south. However, now that the wind has backed and is very light close to Madagascar we have needed to steer further west before reaching the strongest favourable current. There are significant permanent currents in the Mozambique Channel and they are key to the route to be followed.

Annie and I have settled into watch patterns quickly and both seem to be able to sleep well in short periods. All the podcasts I thought I had downloaded in Mayotte haven’t and so we are not able to catch op with the Archers or Friday night comedy. A few old In Our Time will have to suffice.

Apparently there are about 20 boats heading down towards Richard’s Bay at the moment so it will be interesting to see how much room there will be if we all need to take shelter at one or more of the Mozambique anchorages at the same time!