Friday, 3rd September 2010
01.00hrs Distance traveled..................................230 n miles
Wind ....................................4 knots
Sea ....................................flat
The skies were clear and starry, but we could see lightning away in the distance to the NW.
Did you know that Darwin has the 2nd highest amount of lightning in the world, and can have up to 30,000 hits per day during the wet season. That is some incredible amount of lightning. It must never get dark during the night in these cases. They also can get up to 900mm of rain in 12 hours during the monsoons, Jan and Feb each year.
It is lovely to look at lightning, so long as its a long way, away, especially at sea.
02.30hrs As we were motoring and will be motoring for a while, we checked our fuel stock... 800L thats good, unless we have to motor the whole distance, then we might be stretched.
08.30hrs The wind increased to 14 /15 knots, so we hoisted the sails again and shut down the engine. Lady Lisa (an Amel 54) was almost beside us,
09.00hrs Radio Call... For the first time in a long time, we were able to hear all the yachts, mind you, we are all fairly close together.
12.00hrs Distance traveled.................................300 n miles
Distance to Bali...................................617 n miles
We read books, napped, and did a few odd jobs.
18.00hrs The wind was now a steady 20/24 knots and we were flying along again, "Lady Lisa" has vanished over the horizon behind us.
20.30hrs The skipper cooked a chicken dish, plus creamed spuds and green beans, we ate dinner in the starlight restaurant. At this stage, we put a reef in the main and a reef in the genny for good measure, and our speed at 8.5knots remained the same.
night watches :- 22.00hrs / 01.00hrs .....................Skipper
01.00hrs / 04.00hrs......................Neill
04.00hrs / 07.00hrs......................Aileen
00.00hrs Distance traveled.........................................394 n miles
Wind has moderated to 18/20 knots
That's all
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )