Day 145, Year 5: Passage to Gan, Addu Atoll, Maldives, Day 4
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2010
Weather: Cloudy, then Sunny; Winds NE 5-10 Knots
Latitude: 00 degrees 52.178 minutes N
Longitude: 073 degrees 41.793 minutes E
Miles to Go: 103
We sailed all night again with great winds, but when the sun came up, the winds calmed down. On my early morning watch I had to start the engine and pull in the sails so stop them from slatting and waking Mark up. I figured he needed his sleep and motoring for an hour or two wouldn’t hurt anything. When he got up, we started sailing again and then put up the asymmetrical spinnaker for about three hours. The rest of the day was off and on. We sailed with all sails up, just the main and headsail, wing and wing with the headsail poled out to port, and motored a bit from time to time which gave us a chance to run the watermaker. Now that the sun is getting ready to set, we are motoring once again. Actually the wind is back up to 7-8 knots, but it is right behind us and just not enough to push us forward fast enough. We have 103 miles to go and if we can keep going at 4-5 knots, we will arrive in Gan tomorrow. We will cross the equator sometime during the night. It would be nice if the crossing could coincide with a change of watches, but that is probably asking a little too much. So one of us will have to get up so we can celebrate the crossing together. The seas are still calm, the dolphins come to play, the basil is growing, and life is generally good.
