{"id":2119,"date":"2016-02-27T12:15:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T10:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2016-03-02T13:21:27","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T11:21:27","slug":"day-5-sailing-to-sri-lanka-half-way-and-woah-look-at-that-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/?p=2119","title":{"rendered":"Day 5 Sailing to Sri Lanka – half way and woah, look at that one!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Surfing

Surfing the waves<\/p><\/div>\n

During the morning of day 5 we passed our halfway mark for the passage – always a good reason for some cheer. Just a paltry 560 nautical miles to go. We can almost smell that Sri Lankan curry!<\/p>\n

The weather forecast was spot on again as the winds blew 22-25 knots – but more sensational were the big waves. We estimated they were 4-5m at times. You’d look back and see one above Adina’s stern, we’d rise up and then look into the trough of the next wave. “Woah, look at that one”. Susie seemed less impressed. The sea state has been the really big factor on this trip – most of the time it’s as lumpy as can be and we yaw away, other times it calms down and we sprint off.<\/p>\n

There’s not much more to do than chat, read, and if the sea calms down venture out of the cockpit to check all is ok with the rigging. We’ve made a high-level itinerary to go ‘backpacking’ in Sri Lanka and it certainly promises a lot – elephants, leopards, temples, tea plantations and a curry called hoppers!<\/p>\n

The afternoon wind dropped below 20 knots and life became a bit more endurable. Tips breaking the water were spotted – dolphins! We never tire of seeing dolphins and up to the bow we went to watch as some small spinner type dolphins played away. You wonder what it is that attracts them.<\/p>\n

The moon now rises at 9pm so we get two and a half hours of pitch black darkness – on this trip we’ve preferred having some moonlight so we can see the sea. Stronger winds were forecast for the night but didn’t materialise and we even got a bit more sail out. More annoyingly the wind is going east and we are having to steer away from our rhumb line – probably means a gybe during the day tomorrow. An impressive 171 nautical miles for the day – given lighter winds forecast ahead that will probably be our record for this passage. Dolphins and elephants – it’s a funny old world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the morning of day 5 we passed our halfway mark for the passage – always a good reason for some cheer. Just a paltry 560 nautical miles to go. We can almost smell that Sri Lankan curry! The weather forecast was spot on again as the winds blew 22-25 knots – but more sensational…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[112],"class_list":["post-2119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sri-lanka"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t