2008-Feb-26 Noon Position

Indian Ocean
6'01'1N/80'09.2E

• 4 nm since 1030 am
• 435 nm to Maldive Islands
• Winds W 5 knots
• Seas W 0-1 feet

Sandpiper is back at sea again after clearing out of Sri Lanka this morning. I walked up to the immigration office on the navy base at 8:30am with Steve from S/V Shiraz. We got our port clearances, and had them ask us "Gift for me?" Then all we had to do was wait until 10am for the navy came on board to search the 'Piper to make sure that we were not carrying any large bombs through the harbor. We were cleared to go. Three navy personnel came aboard for the inspection. One was a chief. I told him I was a retired chief, and I think he got a kick out of seeing my old chief's ball cap with my anchor on the front.

Our agent did stop by to say goodbye and to ask us "Gift for me?".

We got sandpiper cleared of the concrete dock with no drama. Then we cleared the security booms, one last wave to the guys stationed at the machine gun at the end of the jetty, and we are now steaming westward.

I am proud to say that the new external regulator that we installed on Sandpiper's alternator is working like a champ. What a difference after 1-1/2 years of giving me issues! More on that in 24.

As for now we have west winds at 5 knots. Since we are going west, this means we are motoring until we can get in the NE Monsoon winds. They should kick in as soon as we clear these westerly's that I believe are land influenced.

The piper is also dodging plenty of large ships as they round Sri Lanka. Ships are scattered all around us, heading in all different directions.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy