Day 82, Year 5: Passage to Cochin, Day One
Date: Saturday, January 16, 2010
Weather: Clear Skies, Winds 2-12, Backing E to W
Latitude: 07 degrees 51.625 minutes N
Longitude: 097 degrees 45.101 minutes E
Miles to Go: 1,505
We are on our way to India at last, but it has been a mixed day. We planned to leave at 8 am but there was absolutely NO wind. So we delayed departure two hours hoping the winds would come. Well, minimal wind came, we left, and we have had a day of sailing with light winds, using the spinnaker, motor sailing, floundering, and then motor sailing again. Constance is braving it out without the motor assist, so they are behind us, barely visible on the horizon right now as the sun is setting.. The sea is glassy with swells. We have no idea where these swells are coming from, but it is the swells that make sailing in light winds most difficult. And when I say light winds, I am referring to less than 2-3 knots. We’re not sure what we will do for the night. We might turn off the engine and just slowly move ever so slightly forward if the swell subsides, but if it does not, we will probably continue to motor slowly.
When we first got up we made calls to our kids, my sister, and my brother, although I got no answer there and had to leave a message. Our first call was to Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah. They were eating dinner and using the speaker phone so we got to hear all of them. Jonah was silent while I was talking, but once Mark started talking, he went into high babble gear. It was neat to hear Sam chime in. When we said we were leaving Thailand, he immediately said bye-bye, so he obviously understood. Next we reached Jo and found that she had quite a trip home from England, but made it safe and sound with Ziggy in tow. It was still early evening in New Mexico and Justin wasn’t home yet. So unfortunately we didn’t get to talk to him. But Ziggy was there in the background doing his normal dinosaur squeals. So we heard him loud and clear. Last night Mark tried to call his siblings but had to be content with leaving messages. But even though we didn’t connect with everyone, we were almost successful in using the entire CAT international calling card that we paid $10 US for and got ten hours of phone time. I sure hope they have something like this in India. We also made contact with Larry at East Marine and with Crystal Blue. These are good friends we are unlikely to see again.
While waiting to leave this morning, I trimmed Mark’s hair and he cut mine. My hair was down to my waist and was getting unruly, so taking off a few inches seems to have helped. Just as I finished trimming Mark’s hair, the wind came, albeit minimal. But we left anyway. Our goal for today was to get beyond the fishing fleets before dark and that we did. At least, we think we did. The true test will be after the sun sets. If we start to see lights, then we’ll know we didn’t make it. The trip to Cochin is 1,537 miles and we have only come 32 miles so far, but it still feels really good to be out here. Mark and I both love passages, so we are hoping for just a little more wind, not too much, so we can glide ever slowly westward.
