East of the Nicobar Islands
Yachtsongster
Brian Palmer
Mon 17 Jan 2011 08:45
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After a frantic few days of getting everything
absolutely ready we finally left Phuket on Sunday 16th January 2011 for the
Maldives some 1560 nautical miles away. The weather forecast
looks promising and we enjoyed a good first days sail until the winds eventually
died and we had to motor sail in very light winds late
afternoon. The engine has run almost constantly since then
apart from a few hours this morning, Monday, whilst we tried every sail
combination we could think of to try to move us along but at just over 2 knots
we gave in and the engine is burning fuel. We still have a
long way to go so are reluctant to power along. Once past the
Nicobar Islands, which we should pass tomorrow, and out into the Indian
Ocean we expect stronger winds which will helpfully get us to our destination
without the use of the engine.
It is great to be out on the ocean once more and on
this occasion we are sailing in company with friends Chris and Desiree on
Skylark 2, who we met back in 2006 in New Zealand.
Now that we have given up on the sails we are
taking advantage of the time to catch up on all the lost sleep before we set
off. Now we have to get used to short burst of 3 hours
sleep whilst we take turns at watchkeeping during the night.
So far all is well and we have managed to eat well
and rest.
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