Hanging out in the Indian Ocean

Hi Fellows

Hanging out between Africa and Madagascar, 11 knots of wind, 6.5 knots of speed - lurking in the shadow, right now behind the wheels on the cockpit floor. Life calmed down, now its easy - calm seas (although there is still some swell around), nice weather and hot. Sailing with a full main sail and the new (it was christmas wasnt it ? ) blue water runner which I use now like a code zero, since around 30 hours. 24 hour runs between 160 and 175 miles and still a decent fight with the Agulhas current which is running down the Madagascar channel with around 3 to 5 knots. Almost all repair work is done, the genset is running again and also the electrical connections from the hydro generator is fixed. Only downside is the fishing. These Marlins are imense strong and agressive, for a greenhorn like me, almost impossible to fight with them.  This morning a guy was biting which was huge, the rod brake was not working anymore and the line was spinning down like hell. It was like the h
ook was sitting in a rock, no chance to bring him on meter closer to the boat, but anyway finally the line was breaking, I loste the lure and the line.....so maybe I should advertise for small fishes .....
The weather looking quite stable, it seems that almost until the Seychelles the wind is kind with us, not that much but I rather prefer that then to fight with a cyclone. Tonight I meet a fishtrawler, and it was as always - there are probably only two boats within hunderts of km2 but we were exactly on collision course. We managed then to figure out how to pass for not to get into his long lines...nice guys. Thats it for now, Ill chill a little bit more out here, and yes its soon beeroclock !

Sent from 18.13.690 S / 39.55.288 E - 10.15 UTC - December 29, 2017

Addendum

My weather team seems to have a slightly different opinion :

Hi Markus, not sure if you got my email yesterday about the cyclone. Latest
data has it still winding up to the NE of Madagascar before slipping slowly
SSW, hence keeping it away from your route although you may encounter some
strong W-NW winds as you head North of Madagascar on its forward edge.