19:38:143S 60:10:091E
Shaya Moya
Don & Susan Smyth
Sat 11 Oct 2014 10:28
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Taking advantage of a lull to give you a quick
update.
After a hectic few days in high winds and very big
swells we went past Rodiguez Island in the Indian Ocean around midday
yesterday. Almost immediately the breeze calmed and we were reduced to a very
sedate pace by comparison.
For info Rodriguez is about 330 miles east of
Mauritius and administered by them. Not commonly visited by yachts and not
a stopover for this ARC fleet the small island, with
limited supplies, is nevertheless popular with those who do stop
there.
Anyway here we are on track for Mauritius and
today - Saturday - started very quietly with a big moon in the sky. We motored
for a while but at noon things had improved slightly to allow us to put the
sails out again. At the moment we are still a day away from Port Louis so
our ETA will be sometime tomorrow afternoon. This of course presumes that the
forecast is correct and there is no dramatic change to the weather.
The leading boat in the ARC Rally, a
catamaran named Nexus, will probably get there sometime today in an
incredible 12 Days. The rest of the leaders, including Shaya Moya, will
follow her in tomorrow and others further behind early next week. The
damaged American Spirit with the failed forestay and two yachts helping
them are only expected the following weekend. We wish safe passage to all the
crews.
We have passed quite a lot of ships in the
last few days. All cargo vessels traveling in both directions and we expect the
trend to continue as we approach the African coast. Most of them are very
long and large bulk carriers. The Automatic Identification System on board
allows track them many miles away and most of the time we don't even see them
but we remain very aware.
The fishing lines are back in the water at this
slow speed hopefully to provide dinner. We have been sailing so quickly up to
now that catching anything was simply impossible. They would not be able to keep
up with us let alone take a lure.
So thats it for now. We are looking forward to
a break and there is a lot to be done but that's the thing with
boats.
More updates soon.
 Skipper Donny contemplating the next sail
change?
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