33:03 S 33:16 E

 

After a whole night of motoring as there was no wind , it was a deafening silence when  the wind started to filter in and we could hoist the sails. By around lunch time we were down to just the Foresail.  We knew the winds would pick up , so we reefed down early and just rested and prepared. I must mention this Albatross , he seems to really dig Mike. When ever Mike is smoking off the back of the boat , this guy comes cruising past and soars and turns behind the boat. If i am at the back and he see’s me or Conner he just flys off into the distance. I am pretty sure we saw a Royal Albatross as well. Almost double the size of the “normal” albatross and twice as graceful. Its awe inspiring to watch these creatures slice up the air without a feather out of place. The stronger the wind the happier they seem to be , with curving , slice arks , just skimming the waves but never touching them. By evening the winds hat set in , we were getting odd gusts of up to 33 Knots , so had to reef well down. The whole night we seemed to waddle along getting pushed downwards by the North Easterly wind. By morning we hope that the winds would have died down and we can start heading further north as the South Westerly's kick in. Thank goodness for weather files so we can plan our weather routes  rather than just thumb suck. I always wonder how the old sailors did it , it must have been hair raising. No Gps , no charts , just sail.