11-Feb-2008 Noon Position

Indian Ocean
6'49.4N/87'57.0E

• 105 nm last 24hrs
• 896 nm to Maldive Islands
• 580 nm from Similan Islands, Thailand
• Winds NE 15 knots
• Seas E 2-3 feet

Exact same mileage as the day before, 105nm in 24 hrs. The winds were strong yesterday afternoon. But at sunset they dropped back down to 10 knots, and late this morning they came back up to 15+ knots.

Though we are not making record setting mileages, the sailing has been pretty smooth. We have not had to adjust the sails in days. The main is still out to port, and the jib poled out to starboard.

Last night, after sunset being as the seas were so smooth, we watched a movie in the cockpit under a night full of stars with a crescent moon right off the bow. Its like being in a mini drive in theater in the middle of the ocean.

We had a fishing boat cut us off late in the evening. They crossed our bow less then a mile away , causing us to have to turn to port 40 degrees to avoid running into him. It seems like such a large ocean out here. We do not see anyone for days. Then when you finally do, they are heading right for you. It did not help that he had no running lights. Only fluorescent shop lights around the boat making it very hard for us to determine his course.

When boats get near us, we fire up the radar and start plotting their position to see if what our closest point of approach is going to be. We then make course changes to avoid them. We assume that all of the boats and ships we see do not have a lookouts. So we take early action to avoid getting close to each other. But even with our course change, he still got to within one mile of us. I do not believe they ever saw us since they never made any attempt to change course.

The winds are back up right now, that is what our weather GRIB files were predicting. So we are hoping this holds through the night and we can start cracking on some miles.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy