Hi Friends

Slow winds, strong current out here - our boat speed is not so bad, but we suffering about 2.5 to 3 knots conter current. Anyways a couple of days more and then it should be over, then maybe we can catch the current up north.... But this is not the reason for the escape status of Lifgun. Behind Madagascar a huge cyclone is developing. And it seems to be a really big one. With a bit of luck we can avoid him, therefore we are sticking a bit to the african cost to not getting into the clockwise turning cyclone. The sky shows that something is going on, thats by the way the big advantage of sailing, if you like to observe weather phenomens you should go sailing, the clouds are telling you a lot about whats going on up there. Im really happy for to have Stephanie from Meteogib which is observinbg the situation in a larger scale and consulting me what to do. This gives us a certain amount of security and makes routing decisions much more easier. I recommend such kind of consulting to everybody who is not meterologist nor has a fast satellite connection aboard. That means we will spend the next few days with observing heading and weather, probably not that much partying :))

Hereby her last mail :

Hi Markus, just to let you know that you might start to see some shower/
thunderstorm activity now as you head further North from your current
position, this associated with the developing LOW/ Cyclone.

Of concern is that the latest models show it deepening significantly next
week and no longer slipping SSW towards SE Madagascar but have it staying
close to the NE with seas building. It's hard to know what impact she might
have over your area or if the track may change so I will start updating
daily. If possible continue steering close to the African coast, as I said
yesterday the further West you are the better in terms of any impact at all.
Please acknowledge and wishing you all the best for 2018!  

Regards Steph  

I wish everybody a Happy New Year and a successful 2018.

Sent from 14.52.312 S / 42.04.170 E 10.17 UTC - December 31.2017