Phuket to Sri Lanka - Day 6
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 9 Mar 2012 05:51
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6:59.801N 86:49.906E
March 9, 2012
Take yesterday and repeat. Or as they say in Southeast
Asia, "same, same". We had another day of slow sailing yesterday, and
another night of motoring last night. In the end, we covered 120
miles. Not too flash, but good enough to get us there by late Monday
afternoon barring any unforeseen obstacles. It may be slow out here, but
you can't beat the flat seas - such a relief after some we've been through in
the past. The wind is so light (5-10 kts) the wind waves from the north
are tiny ripples on the surface. When the wind nearly disappears at night,
the surface of the water turns oily and slick - a giant black pool
shining in the filmy moonlight. There is a swell running from the
south, but it's a gentle rolling swell and barely noticeable. This same
southerly swell is likely to cause us fits in future passages when it
won't be so gentle as we head south in brisk southeast trade winds.
We are not really looking forward to being buffeted by hefty wind waves on one
side and ugly swell on the other, but this is typical of the
Chagos-to-Mauritius passage. Guess we'll worry about that one when the
time comes. For now, how can you beat flat seas, enough wind to sail
at least half the time, and a full moon that appears before the sun sets and
doesn't fade until after the sun rises? We can't really ask for
much better or at least anything easier. We had a fantastic sunset
last night. Brilliant reds and oranges filled the western horizon for at
least an hour (unusual for a tropical sunset, which usually doesn't
linger). The only thing missing were the dolphins.
Yesterday's big events:
Don emptied four jerry cans of diesel into the fuel tank (and
didn't spill a drop, which just goes to show how calm it is out
here).
Some cooking took place. Almost unheard of during a
passage, but sometimes it does happen. Water was boiled twice - once for
pasta and once for hard boiled eggs. As if that wasn't enough activity in
the kitchen, vegetables were sautéed for dinner. Wow. Tonight,
chicken might even be stir-fried. Major.
Equipment trouble:
One of the autopilots is on strike. All it will say to
us is, "drive failure" and nothing else. Note I wrote, "one of the
autopilots". This is the beautiful thing about having two completely
separate auto pilot systems. If one fails, we don't panic. We just
push a button and turn the other one on. It is times like this that
we sit back and silently thank Harmonie's previous owners for spending the
money (lots) to install a completely redundant second autopilot system. If
not for them, we'd be cursing and hand steering right now, which even in flat
seas, can be exhausting. As I type this, Don has the manual out in an
attempt to discover what exactly "drive failure" means. So far it's a
mystery, but give him an hour or so and he'll come through with something.
He always does.
Wow. Look at that, Barely do I have the words
typed out before voila! the autopilot is fixed. Is there
nothing Captain Don can't do?
Anne
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