Chinese fishermen
African Innovation
AJ
Tue 11 May 2010 18:46
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Since about 18:00 last night we've been sailing by
the genoa alone. The wind is around 20 knots and the swell is quite big with
some confused wind waves. So as a result we've taken down the gennaker and are
now enjoying a leisurely sail under genoa. We are moving at between 6 - 7 knots
and really can't complain.
Day 8 looked like this:
We logged 164 nm
Our average speed was 6.8 knots
We ran the engines for a total of 6 hours
to charge the batteries.
Average wind speed was around 11-15 knots
At 18:00 yesterday we had 1898 nm to go before we
make landfall.
It was our second best day so far. Day 9 will be
slower, but it has been more relaxing, so we are not complaining. Right now we
are down to 1772 nm to go. In 272 nm we will be half way.
In the middle of the night we saw 4 boats/ships.
One of them came really close and actually passed us at a 100 m distance. It was
a Chinese fishing vessel. We passed close to one of their nets or buoys, or
something like that so they had spotlights on us ... but never hailed us on the
VHF, so we don't really know what was up. Maybe they just wanted to play
chicken.
It was funny to see some lights though ... the
first boats we've seen since leaving Galapagos.
Martin is making dinner today... some Mexican pasta
dish ... Should be interesting. I'm getting hungry from the smell.
- Andreas
5:17.43S
109:34.71W |