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Free & BrEasy - Indian Ocean Blues



Another Sunday finds us on the 15th day of our passage from Cocos Islands to Mauritius across the Indian Ocean. There are only just over 300 miles to go and the thought of port is already getting us excited. Cerveza fresca, daily showers, parties with the World ARC fleet, in to tourist mode to enjoy the Mauritian delights, exercise, shopping and much much more. Mind you there are also the long list of boat issues to check and repair - Roger already has a long list -the freezer - the auto pilot - the engines - and the …..!

The passage has been very relaxing after a bit of a damp start. We have mostly enjoyed beautiful sunny days with moderate winds and the odd tempestuous rain squall to keep us on our toes. An occasional raft of plastic rubbish flotsam and jetsam has floated passed, including part of a tree trunk that we were grateful not to hit and enough bits of wood and netting to make us wonder if it had all come from a boat which had sunk! The clock has been constantly been going back to pace with our westward pursuit of the sun and we were even rewarded by a "green flash" from the setting sun.

Life on board has a certain monastic quality. Like an ancient order of sailing monks we spend most of our day in silence broken only by brief conversations about the weather, reefing the sails, what's for dinner, and of course, about the freezer - the auto pilot - the engines - and the …..! The three of us on board (excluding Pedro the polar bear) have been together since the Galapagos Islands (some 7 months) and we like to think (and who can stop us?) that we are a well oiled machine of hunks, carrying out the sailing duties with professional precision. Of course we have now heard each other's anecdotes, at least three times before, so we have to preface an anecdote over a meal with "I have told you this before but you will have forgotten". The next thing is to number the anecdotes to save the effort of having to tell it all again! Music is confined to our heads apart from snatches of a tune that escape into the air or distant Spanish guitar melodies played by Alejandro in his cabin.

Mostly we spend our time reading or contemplating the vast blue space that is all around us. Searching for answers to life's great questions but falling asleep before the answers arrive. We would mention fishing if we had caught any fish! Given all this frantic activity, you may imagine that an Ocean crossing is not the best material for a blog. So for something completely different we have decided to hold a 'celebratory' interview with our mascot Pedro.

Q: What's your favourite colour?

Pedro: White, because I am camouflaged when hunting for seals.

Q: What's your favourite food?

Pedro: Freshly caught seal, lightly dusted with snow.

Q: What's your favourite hobby?

Pedro: Playing hide and seek with seals.

Q: What's your favourite occupation?

Pedro: Watching the clouds go by imagining they are ice floes with seals just out of sight.

Q: What's your biggest regret?

Pedro: Stowing away on Free & BrEasy on a tropical circumnavigation that goes nowhere near the arctic!

Q. Don't you think you are seal-obsessed?

Pedro: I am a polar bear. Of course I am seal-obsessed!

Phew, that was worth doing! But with that artifice we have magically arrived at the end of the blog apart from an excerpt taken from the Indian Ocean Blues; 'Woke up this morning and the Indian Ocean was blue and beautiful'. Not much of a blues number to make you feel unhappy!


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