Year 3 -30 April 2026 – Sailing to Gan -Addu Atoll – Maldives
The wind continued in the night and we sailed well and fast and at one point did 10.1 kts (in about 12-13kts of wind) and in the right direction. The wind strength was not really forecast. There was little traffic at all although I was woken by Carolyn and Erika about 1.00am who were concerned regarding a boat which was probably a fishing boat but we overtook it. The wind was warm and fanning. The shifts came and went but it seemed that the gap was only 4 hours which does not really work well over a number of days. Watty and I were on at 5.00am and enjoyed the sun coming up.
The wind continued to blow well but we are having to sail close hauled which is good for speed but means you heel somewhat which means you have to do everything at an angle of some 15 degrees and with a swell of about 1.5m this can be quite a challenge- cooking, washing etc.
It is my son Alex’s birthday today so happy birthday to Alex with whom I have spoken.
Watty did his usual scrambled eggs – but we decided to retain what bacon we have for Chagos. I decided that we would revert back to my usual shift system so Carolyn and Joyce did the 8.00am -12.00noon and we would start from there with Erika and Keith doing the 12.00noon to 4.00pm shift and then I will do the 4.00pm-8.00pm watch on my own and will ask for help if required. We would then do our usual night watches from 8.00pm -8.00am.
Carolyn and Joyce got on with their watch which included the daily checks. We continued to sail well and fast as the wind held up and we had full main, full genoa and staysail.
We talked about the daily run to 12.00noon (this was only about 21 and a half hours as we had left at 2.30pm yesterday. We did 157nm in this time averaging about 7.4kts.
We had lunch and then I rested and did some admin. The wind held well and it was a lovely sunny day with white fluffy clouds and a warm fanning breeze. This is what sailing is about zooming along at 8 + kts and you can feel the power of the boat as it parts the sea sometimes throwing water spray on to the deck. The swell rolled in and we bashed through it. The ocean is so immense and looked blue and it was as if we had it to ourselves.
The afternoon passed on and I heard that Keith was still in hospital but on the mend which was good. I then also heard from another crew member joining in Mauritius and sailing to Cape Town that his wife had had a fall and he would have to look after her and therefore will now probably not be able to make it. Ahh that is now 2 crew members I will now be short of potentially for that passage. Therefore if you are reading this and interested in that passage or know someone who could be, please put them in touch. This is very frustrating but you cannot blame anyone you just have to deal with it.
I took over at 4.00pm and we were still sailing well and fast. However, as the sun went down about 6.00pm I saw a number of lumps of menacing clouds some of which had rain clearly dropping from them. I put on the radar and I could see several rain blob clouds and I made them radar targets. Once you do this it tracks that rain cloud and you can see whether you are going to collide with it. We missed most of them but there was a large one I could not avoid and the rain started to fall hard. Keith and I got the genoa and staysail in and I reefed the main and we motor sailed in the rain and the wind increased to 23 kts and within about 20 minutes we were through it and we put out the sails and continued.
We had after this a nice supper of tuna and ratatouille. When Carolyn and Joyce took over at 8.00pm the wind was dropping and we tried all the sails but could barely make 5 kts. We therefore as we were close hauled motorsailed with the genoa and main up which seemed to work well.
We settled down for the night. It had been a good, fast and warm sailing day and we had made good progress. We should arrive tomorrow mid-late morning.
The picture of the day is Stormbird sailing well and fast. Excuse the washing drying on the rail.
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