2008-Mar-27 Noon Position

Offshore Yemen Coast
13'18.0N/47'20.6E
Gulf of Aden
Indian Ocean

• 117 nm last 24hrs
• 142 nm to Aden
• 131 nm from Al Mukalla
• Winds SE 15-20 knots
• Seas 5-6 feet SE

Cracking along nicely last 24 hours... 117nm!! We finally have winds from the SE and up to 20 knots giving us an average of 5-6 knots over the ground with the winds right off the port quarter. We were not sure what the winds were going to do at sunset last night. They usually die away. So we sailed through the night with just the main and staysail out as we did not want to rig the jib pole at night. At sunrise we popped out the jib pole and have been flying ever since.

With winds this strong it is really hard to keep up with S/V Shiraz. They rocketed ahead at sunset and somehow we lost radio contact. We found them 10 miles aft of us at sunrise this morning. They had heaved to waiting for us to catch up with them, and they are now catching up with us.

We dragged 2 lures off back of boat. The spoon lure I bought in Australia got eaten by something very large. It chewed right through our 300lb wire leader and stole my spoon!

If winds keep up we are hoping to make the anchorage at Aden before sunset tomorrow.

More in 24
Tom and Amy