I was not long home in freezing Cape Town when I received a call to deliver a small 38 foot catamaran from Richards Bay to Mahe, Seychelles. So, it was trying to get all my laundry done and pack my bags and off to the Zululand Yacht Club in Richards Bay with my first mate, Dylan Le Roux, who had been my first mate on a previous delivery of Ultima Life from Cape Town to Trinidad. I already had another young fellow, Richard van Leeuwen, waiting on the boat as my crew member. After a hectic few days of getting the boat ready for sea, we provisioned for the two week delivery and set off at noon on Friday 27 July.

The first 24 hours at sea was quite hectic, with high winds of up to 40 knots and very confused seas building to over 5 metres. We spent the first night with a handkerchief size foresail out and trailing a warp and chain to prevent us from surfing down the front of the quite steep waves. All went well and we retrieved our "drogue" at noon on Saturday.

At noon on Sunday we had made a good 149 nautical mile run since noon the previous day - not bad for a small boat! As I write this blog entry, we are out of the fast flowing current, which flows in a southerly direction here in the Mozambique Chanel, and heading for a waypoint just east of the reef Bassis de India. If we can keep a bit of speed up, we should arrive there on Wednesday and then head a bit further north to keep in the southerly winds blowing off the western coast of Madagascar.

I am hoping to reach Mahe on or before Friday 10 August. Keep an eye on the blog to monitor our progress. Regards for now from John, Dylan and Richard.