In the meantime...

Dear Friends

January 2th in the evening finally the Comeres Islands disappeared in our back ! This was a hard fight, with very low winds and still some current. In the following night the trades started up an gave us a fair boost to the north-east.  With N to NW winds we were sailing with about 70 degrees true wind angel since then. The cyclone is still sitting in our south, therefore the wave pattern is a bit wired. This morning we had a cross sea with about 2.5 meter wave height, which is stille here right now. This means incredible banging, especially with wind over 20 knots. Showering at least once every 2 hours is a result out of this... Below a few pros and cons from the last couple of days:

Fishing: Very frustrating, to fight with Marlins from a sailboat....no way dudes. Lost 4 lures since Richards Bay.   Finally I figurd out that I need to use smaller lures for smaller fishes. But I also learned that the lures have to smoke - that means the lure has to jump out of the water every few seconds and then producing an air tail below the water. My lures havent been designed for this air tail..... bad luck. The solution was finally a half cork which was bonded in front of the lure - today in the morning the test started - after 3 hours we were catching one 15 kg yellow tail and one 4 kg whatever fish. But it was a big relief !! And very important for my mood.


Safety: Since yesterday Im sailing without navigation lights - from tomorrow on - as soon as we reaching the 5 degrees south latitude, we entering the high risk area in the Indian Ocean. Since 10 degrees a daily position report to the army forces in this area is needed. Probably then the AIS will also be switched off - stealth mode.......

Mood: So far so good - Yesterday was a difficult day - I felt every bone in my body - and was tired to eat pasta all day long. The fishing issue was frustrating.

Failures : Yesterday night I lost the propeller of my hydro generator, first I thought it must be an wiring problem - but in the morning I figured out it was the lost propeller and mounted the spare one. 

Sailing: So far its seems very clear to me why nobody is doing this way by sailboat - it is more ore less upwind sailing.

Waves: Different to the atlantic - worse - much worse!

Climate : Fucking hot - have you ever been completely wet after boiling a coup of tea ? Sleeping is almost impossible - its so unbelievable hot down there... with no air circulation. 

Thats all for the moment ! Ill keep fighting!!


Greetings from 06.59.360S / 47.08.615 E - 17.44 UTC - January 4th 2018