Year 3 -30 March 2026 - Stormbird -on passage to the Maldives
Keith and Jamie had hard rain for about 15 minutes at 3.30am on their watch with some electrical activity after I had left them when we turned the engine on. When I took over at 5.00am the cushions were a bit damp. There was little traffic and the sun gradually began to come up about 6.30am and again it was bright orange.
I decided to put the main up about 7.00am as I thought it would give us a little more speed and some stability. I then decided to get the Indian courtesy flag down as we were well out of Indian waters. I later put up the Maldive Courtesy flag and the Q flag (yellow duster) which we have to fly until we have cleared customs and Immigration.
I handed over to J and Miranda and it was a bright morning although quite hazy and there was a little cloud around. I went to bed for an hour or so and then got up after a good shower. They had seen some flying fish and I suggested we got a rod out.
We relaxed and chilled and Keith cut up a pineapple and we had breakfast and coffee. We then passed a sort of cargo ship lane and had to dodge some tankers but this was relatively straight forward and some of them had altered course for us. Our 24 hour run from 12.00noon to 12.00noon was 148nm which was not too bad. We had coleslaw and fresh tuna and sweetcorn mayonnaise for lunch which we all enjoyed.
At about 3.00pm we caught a fish which Jamie landed and it was a smallish mahi mahi which are lovely and Miranda gutted it. Just after this the wind picked up and we decided to try and sail. We were soon sailing along with full main, genoa and staysail.
We then had a very pleasant afternoon sailing well in relatively calm seas. Jamie sealed the foot switch for the bow thruster. I made some water and filled out tanks which was good.
I rang Mark Malitskie on the satellite phone to get a weather forecast and we should have about 8-10 kts of wind the rest of the way. We sailed on well and it was a lovely pleasant end of the day. The sun went down with a bright orange glow although it was behind cloud at the end. Miranda cooked a Thai green chicken curry using one of the curry pastes I had bought in Thailand. It was delicious with okra and green beans. We then had various fruits.
I handed over to J & Miranda and we sailed on. I knew at some point we may motor to get to Uligan, one of the most Northern Islands in the Maldives in the morning. I was woken at about 11.15pm after Keith & Jamie took over and got up. The wind had really come round to the North and this made our sailing angle a little difficult and it had dropped somewhat. We had 54nm to go and so we needed to average 6 kts to make it by 9.00am. I therefore decided to take I the sails and motor.
It had been a good day and we had not far to go.
The picture of today is Stormbird under full sail.
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 looking for one crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town (mid June to end of July). If of any interest do email me.
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