13-Feb-2008 Noon Position

Indian Ocean
6'12.4N/87'17.2E

• 106 nm last 24hrs
• 679 nm to Maldive Islands
• 230 nm to Galle, Sri Lanka
• 811 nm from Similan Islands, Thailand
• Winds N 10-15 knots
• Seas NE 2-3 feet

Hi All! What a day! We have finally gotten the beam reach that all those others talk about and have been making over 5 knots since this morning. It's also been a great day as today I received from Tom a dog. No, not a real dog. But the Game Boy game 'Dogz', and along with that a great purse, pizza dinner with salad, cookies for dessert, and we even got to take a shower. A wonderful and memorable way to spend my birthday at sea.

As in keeping with Sandpiper tradition we have changed our plans yet again and decided to hang a right in about 200 nautical miles and check out Sri Lanka. I'm sure my Mom and Dad won't dig that. But we will be fine. No worries. It was on our original plan, but with the civil unrest, we were hesitant. But we really want to see the elephants and check out a few small villages. Since we are so close, we might as well stop by. It looks like we should be there on Friday. So we will keep you all posted.

Cheers,
Amy