First day to Maldives
St Barbara's Web Diary
Peter & Sue Goldsmith
Sun 10 Feb 2008 07:48
6:31N 78:34E
13.00 10th Febuary
St Barbara is now in the patch of ocean between Sri Lanka and India. When
Guido was her at the same time in 2005 it was strong winds and very
uncomfortable. For us it is flat calm, glassy seas and we are motoring. So
much for the NE monsoon. When we left yesterday we had a light southwesterly
wind that allowed us to sail gently on our course to the Maldives. A very
pleasant afternoon. We even saw a large blue whale. Well Sam says it was -
just looked like a whale to me.
We are on the main shipping route from Asia to Europe and so we have
encountered plenty of shipping in the last 24 hours. Large bulk carriers,
oil tankers and container ships make up most of them and generally seem to
alter course for us. We have not had to alter ourselves at all.
The water is that deep ocean blue that looks as though you can see the
bottom, although as it is some 3000 metres down that is not likely. So far
we have not been lucky with the fish nor is there any sign of bird life.
Let's hope for more in the next 24 hours. We have 330 miles to go.