17:17:4S 075:54:2E

 

1200 Sunday 18th October 2015

 

Over Halfway!

What a difference getting halfway makes. Up until that point it always seems a long passage, then once you have reached the halfway mark you begin counting down the miles and thinking, we will be finishing yet another amazing passage almost too soon. I don’t mind admitting, I’ve approached this one with a certain amount of trepidation, the pilot books carefully mention that gales potentially form quickly here, that the beam on swell rolls unstopped from the Southern Ocean and that once November starts the potential for cyclones increases. So we have pushed on quickly, wanting to avoid the Cyclone Season missing Bali, which had always been on my list to visit. But time plus the necessary cruising license, which takes six weeks to get, have prevented this visit. The next leg from Mauritius to Reunion will be short, then another potentially difficult passage to Durban. We will need to study the weather very carefully as the Agulhas current flows at five knots down the S.African coast and this mixed with a SW gale can give frighteningly large seas. I feel as if my other ocean crossings have been in preparation for this, the big one.

 

Todays Weather

Is calmer, the sea has again moderated and the wind dropped. We have the fishing line out again and failing a fresh catch, it is Spanish Omelette a la Wandering Dream for lunch.

 

 

Miles travelled in the last 24 hours: 159 miles (mostly with two reefs)

Miles to Mauritius: 1142 miles