Andamans to Sri Lanka 09:16.9N, 087:09.45E
Meikyo
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Sun 1 Mar 2026 08:42
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We had been looking at the weather for the passage to Sri Lanka and decided that to leave on the 23rd would be the best but as we would not be able to clear out and restock with food so quickly it would have to be 26th. The concerns were an area of low pressure
giving southerly winds and then a large high pressure area giving no wind. The distance is 840 miles, which at an average of 5 knots would take us six to seven days. We carry about 500 litres of diesel which at 4L/Hr would give us 5 days of motoring allowing
a small margin as you can never get all of the fuel out of the tanks and you need to some in reserve just in case. We planned to sail when possible and if speeds dropped below 3 knots then we would motor sail (motoring with the sails set you get a bit of drive
from the air flow over the sails) at low revs, probably only using 2-3 L/Hr.
Thursday 26th. Low pressure SW of the Andamans giving light and contrary winds until we get well to the west.
Saturday 28th. Useful winds but light.
Friday 6th Hope we arrive before the wind dies off and turns against us around Sri Lanka.
We left Port Blair as planned on the morning of 26th and motored down the Andaman east coast, and through Manners Strait between Rutland Island and the Cinque Islands. It was at this point that we lost all phone signal so we would get no internet connection
again for 250 miles when we left’s Indian territorial waters. At this point we should get a Starlink connection and hopefully IridiumGo (our satellite connection for weather) will work, both of which are not allowed in India. Starlink will not work in India
and our IridiumGo was sealed in a box, not to be used in Indian waters. As we had not managed to get this set up and working before leaving Thailand we didn’t worry too much.
The low pressure system had no useful wind as we motored through it heading west and by evening we could see cloud building to the north, occasionally we got a bit of wind starting to blow from the north and if we had been on the other side of the clouds we
would probably have had favourable wind. The wind in the northern hemisphere blows anticlockwise around a depression.
In the early hours of Friday morning the radar showed showers to the north and ahead of us, as we passed through this area we at last found our favourable wind and the engine was turned off. We have been able to sail a lot since then just with occasional periods
with the engine.
When we were on our crossing from Thailand we looked at the sorry state of our headsail which when partially rolled away is very baggy and decided to order a new one. The sailmaker who made the new mainsail for us last year is based in Sri Lanka so the new
sail has been ordered from him and we will collect it when we get there. On a couple of occasions a slider on the luff (front edge) of our mainsail has come out of it track on the mast. This plastic track has suffered from UV and need’s replacing. Zoom Sails
have ordered this for us from America and it can be delivered with the new sail. Another major job organised.
We now have Starlink and IridiumGo working and we are making good progress toward Galle about 450 miles to go. We are still expecting a large area with no wind so we hope to arrive on about 5th March, sometime.
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