March 17, 2007 - Maldives to Oman, Day 6
by George & Merima

Hi Everyone:

We've been plagued by light winds since early yesterday morning, true to form with many of the cruising fleet approaching Salalah before us this season. After a nice 15-20 knot northeasterly, it's a bit disappointing to be burning a bunch of dinosaur juice and rolling in the leftover seas. Daily run was 184 miles, which is not too bad considering we've been pushing into a half-knot to a knot of countercurrent. I suppose this is the payback for all the tail currents we had on the way to the Maldives.

Merima and Kurt chilling out.

Otherwise, it has been very quiet. We appear to be clear of the east-west shipping lane, as we've not seen any traffic in ages. We also seem to be in a no-fish zone. It would be great to catch one more before landfall and have something in the freezer. We've passed a few patches where birds and big fish have been working on the bait fish, but no luck for us.

As of this writing, we have less than 400 miles to go to Salalah. We hope the grib files go back to being totally inaccurate, as the forecast for the remainder of the passage is very light breezes from the northeast to east. At the moment we have a few knots out of the southeast, right on the stern.

Otherwise, we're all well and enjoying the easy pace. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all - we'll be sipping on an Irish Coffee tonight after dinner.

Cheers, George, Merima, Kurt and Tim