Relaxing at sunset
Ocelot Arrives
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Relaxing at sunset |
Monday 28 September 2009, at sea
Dear Friends and Family,
We had a LOVELY day yesterday. A gentle sailing breeze came up about 9am and Ocelot happily splashed along on the flat water. The sky was blue, the clouds were distant, and life was relaxed.
About 7pm the wind died (as it has for the last several days) so we started motor-sailing under starry skies with half a moon watching over us. Jon turned the watch over to Sue at midnight and went to get some sleep.
 Jon changes our anchors -- at sea! |
About 4am Jon woke up to a different noise. The water was no longer swishing gently past the hull, it was WHOOOSHing. Thinking there was a squall going past, he got up to see if Sue needed help. But no, she had everything competently in hand - it's just that a 20 knot wind had suddenly come up and Ocelot was surfing along at 9 knots with spurts over 12! Yikes!
When we hit the calm weather on our 3rd day, we backed the autopilot response down to 2 to save electrons and wear (4 is normal for us). But with this wind dead behind us we risk jibing the main as the waves grab our rudders and slew us around, so we've cranked it up to 6 to keep Ocelot sailing a straight course. Although we like the brisk sailing breeze, our weather files showed NO signs of it coming.
So we're sailing wing-&-wing and scooting along. The fishing lines went out at first light but we don't usually catch fish when we're sailing this fast. As I write this (7am) we're at 0°49'S 71°51'E, or 80nm from Gan. The GPS is predicting a 9pm arrival, which is certainly sub-optimal but there's not much we can do. We've got a good moon and lots of spot-lights and we've been there before so we know what things look like.
Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon and Sue Hacking
Tuesday 29 September 2009, Addu Atoll!
 Wing and wing, on our last day before Gan |
Dear Friends and Family,
Yesterday we actually had a nice sailing breeze from right behind us. Comfortable, but one of our slowest points of sail, even sailing wing-&-wing. The GPS was saying that we'd arrive at Addu after midnight, which would be after the moon had set, which we certainly didn't like. So we ended up having the starboard motor on for much of the day, to push our arrival time forward.
At 5pm Jon cried "Land HO" as he spotted palm-trees on the horizon through the binoculars. At dusk we started seeing the lights of Addu Atoll and at 8pm we got to our waypoint just outside the southern entrance. The sun had set 2 hours earlier but we had a clear sky and half a moon lighting up our surroundings. We jibed the mainsail over and entered the lagoon, using radar and our GPS tracks from April 2007.
 Jon raises the Maldives and Q flags in Gan |
Our anchorage is 3 miles inside the lagoon, just north of the island of Gan. The entrance to the anchorage is tiny and used to be marked only by sticks and fishing floats, neither very permanent. We approached cautiously, with Sue on the bows using our powerful 3 million candlepower spotlight. She picked up the pole marking the north side of the entrance but failed to spot the float marking the south side until we were right on top of it. We spent a few tense moments backing up in 10' (3m) of water but eventually found the channel.
The channel was clear enough that Sue could see the underwater coral in our spotlight. We crept cautiously in and anchored just before 9pm behind a pair of dive-boats in 15' (5m) of water. Shortly afterwards we felt a sprinkling of rain-drops, so I think we made it just in time. We celebrated with a glass of Amarula and went to bed for our first uninterrupted sleep in 8 days!
 Friendly officials, but careful of swine flu |
If you want to check out the anchorage on Google Earth, we're at 0°41'S 73°09'E. The causeways between the islands were built by the British when Gan was a military airbase, and are unique to Addu in the Maldives.
Our stats for this passage are 1090 nautical miles sailed in 202 hours, for an average speed of 5.4 knots - pretty good considering our light conditions. Interestingly, our knot‑log measured only 976nm through the water, so the current must have pushed us over 100nm! The GPS says we hit 10 knots as we left the Seychelles and 12.1 knots surfing on our 7th morning.
We woke up to the scent of land and frangipani flowers, palm trees, turquoise water, and White Turns wheeling around the casurina trees.
We plan to only stay here for a couple of days. We need to buy some diesel, and we'd like to replace our fresh fruits and veggies. Jon needs to spend some quality time with our masthead wind sensor and maybe change the engine oil but then we should be ready to go. Our recent GRIBs say that the southwest monsoon is coming to an end and we'll be facing east winds if we don't leave soon.
Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon and Sue Hacking
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