Sea Monster - on the home stretch

We are on the home stretch! We are ~2,300NM from Cocos Keeling and less than 50NM remaining to the finish line on the north of Mauritius. We have the spinnaker out and it’s been the most fun stretch of sailing for me to date. The sun has created a silver carpet on the sapphire ocean leading us to our destination. It’s beautiful.

I’m no longer relying on the apparent wind angle to know if I’m sailing the right way. I can feel the tickle of the breeze moving from behind my ear to my cheek and back again, indicating whther I need to turn up or down. I hear the change in the sound of the wake behind me, and when a rush (surfing down a wave) quietens, it’s time to turn up again. And with both the wind and the sound, I allow the pressure of the rudder on the helm to guide me, always trying to maintain just a bit of pressure.

Visual clues help as a reference - now the sun is getting lower in the sky, I can follow the edge of the silver carpet. The compass shows the heading, and quickly I learned 270° was as low as I should go, and 290-300° was ideal, so an occasional glance there is a good cross-reference. Finally, the chart shows our intended course and direction, and a quick glance at the blue line shows if I’m on target or not.

This has not been an easy passage by any stroke of the imagination. Sometimes I curl up in bed in the bow, listening to the frightening rush of the Indian Ocean all around me, and I had moments of “WTH am I doing here?!?” And then I come back on shift and enjoy the sound of the ocean, the feel of the wind, and the strength and safety of Sea Monster, and smile again.

Jerry says he’ll make a sailor of me yet. I say he set the foundation for that the first time he took me racing in Sydney Harbour 28 years ago! That’s another story.