It's Monday and we continue to press westward. Sometime north of west and sometimes south of west but each mile gets us a little bit closer. On a straight line, we only have 657 miles to go. That's a good 6+ days still ahead of us.
Tracy came on deck just about 0600 and I headed below for some more sleep. Up by 0830 for the morning SSB net of boats that are out here. About ten reported in so we are on the move. As far as we know, we are the only boat that bipassed Chagos and is heading straight for the Seychelles. Some people have stayed 28+ days there. An atoll the British decided to move all the people off of back in the early 60s and turn it into a nature preserve. To stop there, you need a permit and that permit costs a bit of money. We'd spent a ton in the Maldives with their government rules and we needed a break. So off we went. We will meet up with most of the boats when everyone gets to either Madagascar of South Africa.
Today, it's nice and sunny with winds out of the east at about 15 knots so since we can't go straight down wind, we have to go a ways and then gybe, go a ways and gybe back. Over and over all of it getting us farther west. Swells are running about 1.5 meters at this time. Far more than we have had in a while. I have the Yamaha generator running on the stern re charging all the batteries and I had to tie it off so it doesn't slide across the deck. It should calm down some time this afternoon. I'll let you know The journey continues.
It's now just about 1600 and the winds, what,we,had of them have died off to about 4 knots or les. Our speed is just about zero and we are just sloshing in the three foot swells. There is no constant factor to them so we are bouncing all over the place. Sure hope they improves during the night or it's going to be a long night.
It's now 2015 and Tracy has hit the sack. We had a good radio net tonight with lots of boats signing in. Took till 1930 to go through all of them. Winds are currently from the southeast about 6 and our speed is about 3.5 heading almost due west. We will get to the Seychelles in about another 663 miles. About 6 to 7 more days at the rate we are going. Today was light winds making us rock back and forth with the boom and main sail crashing and squeaking at every roll of the boat. After ten hours or so, it gets quite old. Now that night had come, the winds have steadied and while we are rolling from time to time, it's much better.
We had three cormorants try and hitch a ride with us this evening and the kids were having none of it. Snowshoe headed right for them on the stern(stupid cat--they are bigger than he is). Tracy had to call him back to stop him. They eventually went away. No clue where as we are hundreds of miles from any shore. We've got some clouds and some stars so it should be a nice night. I'll let you know. Heck, at times like this, it's either read, or do posts or play around on my IPad. --------------000509090206080602000704--