(Written February 3, 2002) Two years ago we sailed to Addu from Langkawi, so we've sorta done this passage before. The difference this time was in leaving from Phuket, Thailand, 120 miles north of Langkawi, and leaving in mid-January instead of mid-February. Doesn't seem like much, but the contrast between the two trips was significant.

THEN: very light winds - less than 10K; sailing on the wind; current against us; sloppy seas; 119 hours on the engine; 1 bloody tuna.

NOW: easy winds, 12-15K; beam reach or running; current in our favor; very comfortable seas; 62 engine hours; a 20-pound mahi-mahi!

The usual game plan for this voyage is to stay as far north as possible, as long as possible, to retain the best winds. Richard was feeding us the weather from his computer web sites each day via the ham radio. And every day there was good wind north of 7 degrees North, and very light winds to the south of that. So we stayed north. Actually, Phuket is located at almost 8 degrees North, so we were already in the good winds. All we had to do is head west.

	Trying to show how agitated the surface of the sea looked...It doesn't show up too well in a photo. Too bad the sound that's on the video is not on the photo!

The Agitated Andaman Sea

The Andaman Sea is between Thailand and the Andaman Islands. For some reason this area is awash with currents, which appear to be upwellings rather than flow. They cause the surface to boil with crazy patterns of waves. You can hear the roar they create long before you sail into them. Pretty spooky at night too: One set we passed through had a series of small breaking waves right across it like surf. That gets your attention! Lots of lumpy bumpy areas that just tossed the boat around. Very uncomfortable - hard to sleep, hard to cook, hard to hold on! But at least it was only for 2 days, then we were through the Sombrero Channel between the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, and everything smoothed out and became habitable again.

Current Events

In the first 22 hours of the passage we lost 20 miles due to adverse current. You always tend to think the worst, that this would be a record slow trip. We kept hearing reports from the boats ahead of us about all the favorable current they were picking up - like up to 2 knots! Al said, "Well, they can always get their instruments fixed!" But sure enough, once through the Sombrero Cannel we started to pick up favorable currents ourselves. Never saw 2K, but a consistent 1 to 1 1/2K with us. By the end of the passage we had gained 167 miles due to current. That's significant - over a day's run for us. Total miles on the trip: 1671 miles.

(Check back next week for more on this passage.)