Madagascar to South Africa Day 4 – Faster, faster

Day 4 morning broke and we still had snarling rough seas breaking around us. The wind would pick up by a mere two knots and the seas would immediately snarl louder. We grinned and bared it hoping the forecast that promised lighter winds of 15-20 knots would materialise.

Our brains worked away at how we could fix HRH Princess Electric Furler of Genoa and emails were exchanged with family for further advice. We tried a few things but the princess seems to have gone to sleep for now so there was lots of sitting on the bow slowly furling or unfurling the genoa sail. Susie says she likes doing it with her legs dangling off the bow above the blue seas.

By afternoon the winds were 12-15 knots and we were able to sail on a broad reach – that means both sails on the same side as a boat is designed for and not goose-winging as we so often end up doing. Much dancing and delight as Adina soon took off sailing at 6-8 knots on average with the odd rush above 10 knots as we sailed down a wave or two. Come evening time the winds were 17-18 knots and we were steaming along. The poor person off watch struggled to sleep due to the sounds this creates as water rushes by the hull and our hydrogenerator, mounted just behind our cabin, whizzes away bringing in power. But it’s speed we need so sleep takes second place.

Come midnight and, as the forecast predicted, the winds died and the engine is now on as we motor. No fishing yesterday due to the sea state but a flying fish did leap into the cockpit while Tom was on the midnight to 3am shift. Not easy trying to catch a fish flapping madly on the floor.

A good day’s sailing overall and our average speed over ground was up to 6.3 knots. Sadly the motoring has bought that down to 6.2 knots this morning and we still need 6 knots average to make it to our target shelter hole on the Mozambique coast by tomorrow night. At the moment we are only averaging 5.7 knots. We do have a shelter hole we can dive in before that and will have to make a call today.