Hi everyone,
Well we reach a milestone today,halfway to Mauritius. All well aboard, but rugged conditions. I did early morning shift, sailing in 20-25 knot winds, when a squall hit us Drenching rain, wind shift to dead behind & increased to 30+ knots (which means all sails swing violently from side to side, and would break fittings if not attended to), so I took us off course, sailing to the wind and called all hands up to the deck.Rather than go off course, we decided to motor, as we still have plenty fuel.All this 1/2 hour before dawn. Motoring exaggerated our side to side motion, from the waves, as the sails normally hold us over to one side on a lean, dampening our motion. Arti jammed herself across our bed to stop herself falling off, and I actually had a short nap while bracing myself across the cockpit (waves come every 10 seconds), amazing to be able to do that asleep! Anyway, wind shifted a little off to the side after 3 hours, so we put up sails again, & were comfortable again, but within 1/2 hr it shifted behind us again. We are now motor sailing which tends to bring apparent wind to the side, and getting away with it. I thought trade wind sailing would be easy, but to-day we will have our work cut out. The sea is a dark blue to-day, overcast with dark black & grey clouds around us, but sunshine and blue sky well to the north.Wave & swell are about 4 meters high, and have been for last two days. Should ease to-morrow .
John and I have a backgammon competition, first to win 5 games, every afternoon. Up till now the boats bucking hasn’t stopped us, but occasionally dice or pieces end up thru hatch in the kitchen! We are evenly matched! Arti has started crocheting to-day, & we are reading ARTEMIS FOWEL books, & watching Merlin TV series. We all keep busy.
Love to all, Dimitri & Arti
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