Dispatches from the Madagascar Plateau Day 11

Misterx
Thu 21 Nov 2024 05:39
28 18.0S : 045 38.8E

21/11/24
8:30 am
Day 11
DTD 743nm

Finally the wind so eagerly awaited turned up last night. Nothing too drastic but from a 4/4.5 knots, we are now jogging along at a steady 5.5/6 knots of boat speed. A world of difference! We can see the miles going down a lot quicker.... if only it was in the right direction!!!
It is a real shame that we might need to slow ourselves down off shore to let a bit of a blow pass before we can make our way to the coast of South Africa, toward Richards Bay. Our 4 weather gurus onshore are pondering the next steps for us and will probably come up with the best strategy. Hopefully they will agree with each other, otherwise i can see a bit of a conundrum looming... whose advice are we going to follow? the nearest one to our own opinion/experience will be my guess!

On the domestic front, we are now quite low on the fresh veg front, we have done very well and only lost a courgette and oddly enough the red cabbage had to go overboard! These usually last for month... not sure what got into it but it was quite furry by the time we got to it. Carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, leeks as per usual are going extremely well. Even the peppers which we had trouble keeping in the past are holding up pretty good. And the avocados were just beautiful, we had the last one a couple of days ago, and we didn't have to mash it for guacamole. As for the fruits, the big surprise was the pears, they've been absolutely beautiful... We still have loads of apples, oranges and kiwi fruits... my little Mauritian lady really done us proud! Thinking of her everyday!

Time to put a gybe in... we might go in the right direction from now on.
M