East of the Nicobar Islands

Yachtsongster
Brian Palmer
Mon 17 Jan 2011 08:45
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.