Year 3 -13 May 2026 –Bound for Mauritius- Strong Winds on way.
I had the 2.00am to 5.00am watch which went quite easily in that the sails were set and we were making good progress. I made water and charged the batteries at the same time. I had noticed that the air and the wind is considerably cooler as we go Southwest and the hot sticky heat and humidity seems to have disappeared.
I went to bed after the shift and slept for a couple of hours and then got up and kept Keith and Erika company. I made smoothies as Carolyn and Joyce came on and Keith then made bacon and egg sandwiches which were good.
I had looked at the weather and I also had an email from our weather man, Des, that we had some stronger winds coming. Des said 21-27 kts and Predictwind said up to 29 kts essentially a force 7 with 3.2 m swells. This was a little annoying as it would slow our passage but there are some lows below us and it is probably the effects of that.
I made some more bread and then I was on watch at 12.00noon for my 4-hour watch. As the watch progressed the wind increased and we started to get 20-25 kt winds but randomly with the main underlying wind being 17-19 kts which we have now had for some days. We continued to make good progress but the swell started to increase, as did the wind, and so we slowed down a little and were hitting the odd wave rather than speeding over it. The 24-hour run to 12.00noon was 191 which was good. The issue was really that the sea became more confused with swell from different directions. We had lunch of leftovers really and it was good to use things up.
The afternoon wore on and we sailed well and began to prepare for the stronger wind. We were coming to the mid-way point of this trip and Carolyn had bought some toffee to celebrate. I put a waypoint some 619nm from Chagos and this was the mid-way point. We celebrated and had some toffee and now it was another 619nm.
We then had some tea and some of the stronger winds started to arrive and then it blow 20-25 kts for a period with a howl in the rigging and then come back down again to 15-19 kts. We set our sail plan conservatively of 3 reefs in the main and a staysail sort of size in the genoa. This was a little slow so I shook out a reef in the main and it was better and giving us a little more drive. The issue was some slamming into waves every now and then. We will have 24 hours of this unpleasant weather to contend with. We cannot complain really as when I look ahead on Predictwind I see a large wind hole and there is no wind from Chagos to Mauritius next week so we have been lucky to have had such consistent wind.
I made supper of chilli and rice which people seemed to enjoy and we settled down for a lumpy night with the wind going up and down and being inconsistent. We cannot keep changing sail plans so we set out plan and we will get through it and then we can crack on as we have been.
The picture of the day is Joyce holding down the staysail set out on the galley table.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
I will be going shortly from India to the Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.
I am currently in need of potentially 2 crew from Mauritius to Cape Town from about 10 June 2026 and we should arrive in Cape Town on about 25-30 July 2026. If at all interested contact me on my email below or WhatsApp +44 7931360372.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com