Ocelot has Leaped

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Ocelot has Leaped
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Southern Hemisphere
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Ocelot in the Maldives
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Ocelot Arrives

Ocelot has Leaped

Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 122 miles from Galle, 466 miles from Addu

More than enough fruit for the passage to Maldives

Leaving Galle with more than
enough fruit for the passage.

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday at about 3pm we finally finished all our provisioning (for 3 months), pulled all our lines and anchors from the muck of Galle harbor, cleaned and stowed them, and sailed past the heavily secured breakwater. All shipping from the Middle East to the Far East passes just south of Sri Lanka but we were able to cross those busy shipping lanes by 7pm and set course to the southwest.

We're heading for the island of Gan (0°41'S 73°08.6'E) about 600 nautical miles SW of Galle, in the southern most atoll of The Maldives. The Maldives form a vertical line of atolls directly south of India, stretching to just south of the equator.

For those who heard of the recent terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka, we were far away and unaffected (except that our tuk-tuk drivers were muttering dark things about the Tamil terrorists). Apparently, a Tamil Tiger light plane dropped 2 bombs on the military airfield (just next to the commercial airfield that Chris flew home from only a few nights ago) north of Colombo, killing 3 and wounding more.

But that's all behind us now. As of local noon (GMT+5) we're at 4°35'N 79°01'E, 122nm from Galle and 466nm from our waypoint at the entrance to Addu Atoll. Ocelot is stretching along under full sail in almost ideal trade-wind conditions: 15 knots of warm breeze from just forward of the beam, fairly flat deep blue seas punctuated with an occasional white-cap, and blue skies with only an occasional puffy cloud. Last night the silvery moon lit our path until 1pm and that will only get better as the trip progresses and the moon waxes. Amanda's just baked us another of her wonderful lunch breads (served with cheese and guacamole) and all's well on board.

Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon, Sue and Amanda Hacking

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