Day 220, Year 5 Passage to Madagascar, Day 1
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds SE 18-22 Knots
Water Temperature: 83 Degrees F
Latitude: 05 degrees 39.518 minutes S
Longitude: 071 degrees 36.293 minutes E
Miles to Go: 1,411

The sky is blue with puffy little white clouds, the sun is shining brightly, and the wind is strong, but no too strong. The seas are a little sloshy, probably two to three meters but coming directly at our beam about every four or five seconds. That plus the fact that the wind is slightly behind us makes it a little uncomfortable, but not too bad. We’ve traveled 47 miles in 7 hours which means we have been moving an average 6.5 knots . If we keep up like this we’ll reach Madagascar sooner than expected The prediction is for lower wind speeds for the next few days, however, so we don’t expect this to last.

We have had a surprisingly busy day. The marines who came in on the Pacific Marlin stopped by our boat first thing this morning to check our permit and invite us to a barbecue on Boddam tomorrow. We might have been able to ask them to let us extend our stay by two days so we could attend, but we had already decided that the weather looked good so it was time to go. We went over to say farewell to Kathy and Richard on Mr. Curley and get a photo of his spectacular onboard garden and then came back and raised the dinghy. We put it on the foredeck bottoms up and I scrubbed off the lovely green algae that grew on it in the past two months. We had not put the printer away for passage and before we did, we printed a batch of photos of our grandbabies to look at while on passage. They are still on the table and every time I go below, I get the greatest joy just looking at their smiling faces. By 10 am the anchor was up and we were on our way. We had a great send off. Wolfgang on Galateia blew the conch shell over and over while Elizabeth on Ventana hummed the Star Spangled Banner. She’s from Norway so I don’t know how she knows our national anthem. And then people got on the radio with verbal farewells. Constance was behind us so we looked a bit like a parade leaving Salomon Atoll. After we were out of the atoll, we raised the main and found ourselves moving along nicely at 5.5 knots. We added the staysail and the speed increased to 6.5 and when we rolled out the headsail we were speeding along at 7.5 to 8 knots. We decided to roll in the staysail and settle for 6.5+ knots as it was a little more comfortable. I didn’t get to take a shower before we left and I am sure glad we have a shower with a seat in it. Otherwise, I would have had to go without as it was just too rolly poly to stand up. I did a small laundry, made up the sea berth, used the volcano technique (vinegar and baking soda) to clean the drains in the twin galley sinks, and now it is time to fix dinner. That’s how the first few hours of passage went on Windbird.