March 16, 2007 - Maldives to Oman, Day 5
by George & Merima

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday was a pretty good day on board. We had nice breeze throughout the day and managed to put some mileage under the keel. Our 24-hour run from the day before was 177, and all of that was under sail. The weather continues to be stuck on beautiful and the only complaint is that the winds can get a bit light at times.

We finally broke the fishing curse and landed two small mahi-mahi yesterday morning. It was the first time in more than two years that we had caught mahi, and it was great to have some fresh fish again.

We reached the geographic halfway point to the passage yesterday at about 1330 hours and are hoping to cover the second half of the passage in less time. Winds were fresh for most of the day, reaching over 20 knots at times, and giving us some 9-knot hours with just white sails. The wind gradually eased during the evening and by 0300 the sails were flogging in the beam seas and we were down to about 3 knots over the ground. So, for the time, we're motorsailing and hoping the breeze will fill in again today.

All is well on board and we're projecting landfall in Salalah sometime on Monday.

Cheers, George, Merima, Kurt and Tim