February 3, 2007 - Andamans to Maldives, Day 4
by George & Merima

Hi Everyone!

Whew, its been such a busy day I've almost forgotten to write!

Here's a brief summary of our day. I marinated a batch of fish which we put out to dry into jerkey. After breakfast of rice pudding, we gybed onto starboard and set the spinnaker. Winds have been light, about 10-15 knots, so the kite added a knot or so to our speed. We then cleared the deck of flying fish carcasses. Seas were fairly calm so I pulled apart one of the watermaker membranes and replaced a faulty end cap. Water quality is back up to excellent. The middle of the day was consumed by reading, conversation, listening to music, eating, naps and watching the fish dry. In the late afternoon, a rather nasty squall line appeared on the horizon and was overtaking us. Winds became very shifty. We took down the spinnaker and went back to a poled-out genoa. There wasn't much in the clouds but a short bit of increased breeze. We're back to just over ten knots of wind and speeds of 6-7 over the bottom.

From noon yesterday to noon today, we sailed 172 nautical miles, and made good 162 to our waypoint. As of this writing we have about 700 miles to go to Male.

It's time for a sundowner.

Cheers, George, Merima, Thane and Graham