Be The Jam

Position: Indian Ocean

S 08°54.78'

E 093°44.90'

The going is very slow. Had a really good run for 24 hrs this morning, a record was set; we flew the spinnaker for over 24 hrs none stop. Quite an achievement, the spinnaker is a great sail but it needs constant monitoring to keep it up. The wind finally petered out on us this afternoon; we are currently running on engine. We have to run the engine for a couple of hours per day anyway to recharge the batteries. So using the engine to move us a long isn't so bad, but you have to consider we only have enough fuel to cruise for six days. Considering the crossing is going to take us an estimated month at best, you can imagine fuel is very precious. Without fuel, it means not having it in an emergency and no electricity. So as I was saying progress is slow and it looks like we will be another 10 days at our present speed to get to Chegos Archipelago, then onto Seychelles .

We finally ran out of ice in the fridge today. So nothing will keep for more than half a day: The temperature was really high today without any wind. I got a bit of sun stroke from this morning; a mixture of drinking beer (at a rapid rate as we were running out of ice, the prospect of drinking warm beer giving us all nightmares) and sitting in the sun. Feel OK now though.

Cleaned the oven jets today. We haven't been able to get the oven up to temperature, so we took it to bits and it was full of crap. Cooking jacket potatoes now and looking forward to baking some bread tomorrow!!

Still no fish! Won't talk about that it will just make me feel hungry.

Position: Indian Ocean

S 08°30.36'

E 096°16.40'

Spent all morning on the engine. There was no wind, not even enough to get the spinnaker up. Finally at about 1300 hrs we were able to get the spinnaker up. It's really tedious we haven't got much wind; it means we are doing a very slow 2-4 knots all the time. We are doing about 2 degrees per day; we have got another 21 degrees to go before we get to Chegos Archipelago!! At our present speed that means we have another 10-14 days! That doesn't mean we'll see anyone there, all there is is a military base, no one is aloud to go near it. Then we have another weeks' sailing to get to the Seychelles . So what I'm trying to say is that we are going to be drinking warm beer for about three weeks! Ice in the fridge has finally given up.

This crossing is tediously slow. It should have been the easiest part of the journey, in all the books it says Force 4-6 South-easterly for this time of year. The wind is coming from the South and sometimes from the south-east, but Force 1!!! Well as I mentioned yesterday wasn't the best day for fishing either, if we loose anymore lures or fishing line we’ll have to resort to having to use rope and making our own lures out of something. I have this horrible feeling that this is what is going to end up happening, so watch this space.

Well maybe the wind has got up a little since I started writing as the boat keeps pitching over once in a while. Worth mentioning that I went up the mast today, not to do repairs but for pleasure!! I really wanted a shot of the boat from the top of the mast; it is a gorgeous day, so up I went. I wasted a role of film and managed to catch a little on video, hope I got something worth looking at.

Nothing changes; here's looking forward to constant strong winds and boat loads of fish.

Position: Indian Ocean.

S 08°15.35'

E 097°42.75'

On watch. Wind has been strong today, South easterly. It has started to fluke now; we haven't had a night where the wind has stayed with us throughout. Lost two more lures today. Had a strike on one real and it broke the line, could have been a log or a very big fish! And the other lure appears to have shaken itself of the line!! Drinking the beer ASAP today as we are running out of ice. Saw some more dolphins just now.

Position: Indian Ocean

S 07°43.04'

E 100°35.40'

We had a 20 knot wind most of the night. It died mid morning as yet another storm brewed. The storms continue to kill the wind till they are on us, then we get blasted. It rains heavily, and the wind gusts. We have made better progress in the last 12hrs, but we would have liked to have been a lot further West by now. No fish; lost one of the good lures last night. So we continue to eat vegetables. I tell a lie, we did catch a fish, a flying one, well we didn't catch it really, it flew into the cabin, we found the silly bugger this morning, not enough for a feed though. My belly has shrunk, all that good living has fallen of me, Toby one belly is no longer. Talking of food, Rupert cooked pancakes today, most excellent! Banana pancakes all round. I had a dream about roast dinner last night gravy crackling...

Well here's hoping for constant wind and boat loads of fish!

2030 hrs

My belly is full!! Ate a yellow finned tuna. Why? We caught one! Had a strike at about 1800 hrs and hauled it in. Fucking excellent! There I was at lunch time thinking about fish and my prayers were answered. There is enough fish left over for a barbecue tomorrow. I managed to cut 6 large stakes from it. Had it pan fried with garlic and lemon with mash potatoes and sweet corn!! The fish was still jumping when it hit the pan!! Absolute heaven on the fork. Too many days already without meat or fish. I'm sick of tofu. Everyone happy and content even though it started to rain again. We cracked open some beers tonight to celebrate. FFFFIIIISSSSHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Position: Indian Ocean .

S 07°21.00'

E 101°44.58'

Wind arrived today 20 knots gusting 30. Storm this morning and rained about three inches. Very tired. Getting used to being on watch. Weird having a few hours sleep, then getting up and being hammered by the wind, to then go back to bed for a couple more. The constant movement of the boat it tiring in itself; you can never relax except when asleep, I mean asleep because laying down you are constantly battling being turned over. The movement is constant with wind or no wind; with the swell and no wind its worse.

Rupert’s' arm is festering; the coral spores are not letting the arm heal. I told him to be careful or he might wake up in the morning with a coral head growing out of his arm! We would have to nickname him Reefcliff or RuReef or forget it ‘bad pun’. It should start to heal soon as we are not swimming at all.