Day 4

It was just one of those days where variety is the spice of life!  It started off with us rocking and rolling on the following seas of around 2m and a wind from behind of around 15knots – fair enough. The early threatening cloud cleared and we were left with lovely blue sky.  We were anticipating the wind to abate and to have to motor for a few hours whilst the front came through and the wind did a 180 degree turn.  However the wind never really abated until mid-afternoon when it suddenly went ahead.  The sea started to calm down a bit and gradually the wind started to die off so we shook out the reef in the main.  5 minutes later – no wind - on went the motor.  We took advantage of the lull in everything to get the pole down and away.  About 15 minutes later we were sailing again – close hauled.  Within the next 5 minutes the wind had got up – we had a couple of reefs in the main and 3 rolls in the genoa.  The seas were roaring (hades and loose are the words which spring to mind!) The sky was full of threatening rain clouds.  As the wind got up to 30+knots, away went the genoa and out came the stay sail.  It’s a good thing it was Sunday – there were so many holes in the sea (think about that one!)  We were being lifted up on a wave then dropped from a great height only to be lifted again.  Even the pre-prepared dinner didn’t get eaten.  We carried on like this for about 3 hours until the sea gradually calmed down a little and the wind dropped to around 25 knots.  It pretty much continued like this for the rest of the night. 

This morning the wind is around 20 knots and the seas about 2 – 3 m but we have changed course slightly so we now have the wind and seas more from behind.  We expect this to continue for the rest of today.  Leaden skies.  But we have turned the corner at the bottom of Madagascar so are now on our course for South Africa. 

There’s lots of traffic on the AIS – many cargo ships plying their trade on this route.  Nothing again in the way of wildlife – mind you it would be difficult to see anything in these seas! 

Date and time: 25th October 09.30 local (GMT + 4 hrs) 

Position:  S27:10:618 E044:37:900

24 hours distance:  192nm