While we expect to do longer passages when we leave Capetown to cross the south Atlantic, our passage to the Seychelles was our 4th longest to date, if only by 30 miles:
| Our longest passages to date: | |||
| Rank | Passage | Length (nautical miles) | Date |
| 1 | Galapagos to Marquesas | 2,935 nm | May-June 2003 |
| 2 | Maupiti (French Polynesia) to Tonga | 1,400 nm | May 2004 |
| 3 | Malaysia to Sri Lanka | 1,054 nm | March 2007 |
| 4 | Chagos to Seychelles | 1,024 nm | June-July 2007 |
 Magnet to cruisers: the Seychelles Yacht Club |
It was also one of our roughest passages in a long time. While we have no real objective measure, our passage from Curacao to the San Blas in February 2003, with its sustained 40 knot winds and 20' (6m) seas, and the last 2 days our trip from the Marquesas to the Tuamotus in July 2003, where we found ourselves close-hauled into 25 knots, stick in our minds as passages not to be emulated. Considering that those were our worst and they were 4 years ago, we consider ourselves pretty lucky!
The following are our noon positions and statistics as we sailed from the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territories) to the Seychelles. Wind speeds and directions are apparent - true wind-speeds were somewhat higher and true wind angles were a bit further aft (our forward speed pulls the apparent wind forward):
| June/July 2007 |
South Latitude |
East Longitude |
Day's Run |
Miles to go |
Wind Speed |
Wind Direction |
Comments |
| Thu 28 June | 5° 20' | 72° 16' | 0 | 1,024 | 15-30 | 120-165° | Lumpy seas, squalls at night |
| Fri 29 June | 5° 30' | 69° 56' | 143 | 881 | 17-25 | 145° | Lots of sail changes, washing machine seas |
| Sat 30 June | 5° 30' | 67° 13' | 161 | 720 | 20-40 | 145° | Surfed at 15.2 knots, Jon up mast to release main |
| Sun 1 July | 5° 29' | 64° 34' | 162 | 558 | 20-25 | 120° | Wind more S, coming fwd, meet 2 ships at night |
| Mon 2 July | 5° 30' | 62° 06' | 150 | 408 | 18-22 | 125° | Wind moderating, conditions improving |
| Tues 3 July | 5° 19' | 59° 36' | 154 | 254 | 16-21 | 100-140° | Start edging N, flatter seas, tropicbirds! |
| Wed 4 July | 4° 52' | 57° 22' | 137 | 117 | 15-19 | 80° | Slowing Ocelot down to arrive in daylight |
| Thu 5 July | 4° 37' | 55° 28' | (117) | 0 | 8-12 | 160° | Anchor at 8am for customs clearance |
Totals: 1,024 nautical miles in 6 days and 20 hours, for an average speed of 6.2 knots and a maximum speed of 15.2 knots (says the GPS). This passage was somewhat slower than expected given the winds, mainly because we had to slow down for the last few days (so we'd arrive in daylight) and when we were in the lumpy seas (for comfort). One of our least comfortable passages to date.
The newsletters we sent while on passage are:
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