2008-Feb-28 Noon Position

Indian Ocean
6'37.0N/76'05.2E

• 135 nm last 24hrs
• 190 nm to Maldive Islands
• 249 from Sri Lanka
• Winds N 25-30
• Seas 6-8ft N

Rock and Roll! That's what were doing.

After noon yesterday storm clouds moved in and wind increased to 25+ knots off the starboard beam. At first we thought that the wind increase was due to squalls in the area. But the wind continued to increase late in the evening and the seas built up to 8 feet, sometimes breaking right against the hull insuring a wet night with lots of rain.

We have spent the last 24 hours with a double reefed main and a stay sail forward. Still making 6.5 knots at times. As Amy says "Not Fun". This is the strongest winds we have had since being off the east coast of Australia, and they make for a very uncomfortable ride. In the middle of the night when Amy had the watch and I was trying to get some sleep, Sandpiper jumped off a wave so hard I woke up in mid air as I flew across the cabin and landed straddling the cabin table. Now I have a few nice bruises.

One positive note, the amount of shipping that we have been sailing thru has dropped considerably. Just a few ships passing by the last 24 hours.

At 1800h last night S/V Shiraz was 15 nm ahead of us making good progress. At noon today the winds have started decreasing, and the size of the waves dropping as well. We are hoping that this trend continues as this weather did not show up on our weather GRIB files and really is not a lot of fun.

More in 24,
Tom and Amy