Saturday, 18th September 2010 (Day 5)
06.00hrs Having had a bad night as in shredding the Kite again, dawn brought a new air of confidence, so we set up a goose winging arrangment and away we went once more.
Distance travelled .............................................738 miles
Distance to destination.......................................326 miles
Wind E to ENE ...............................................18/22 knots
Sea state..........................................................moderate
For a change, we had fried eggs on toast for breakfast, plus the specially made fruit juice by Aileen. It beats the usual of Cornflakes and tea.
09.00hrs Radio Net :- today the Net Controller was Eowyn and it appears that we are still in the lead few boats. All those in front of us are giving us time (that's all of 1 boat Destiny)
We had lots of showers during the rest of the morning, and everyone on board had showers as well. It is hot. We spent time reading up on the Cocos Islands. It is the last remaining Atoll we will visit on the trip and we are all looking forward to swimming off the back of the boat.
We had an email from Mike Dicks on the Cocos. It seems it has been raining there for the last 2 weeks or so, but TG the sun is shinning today and they expect the weather to be good for the next week or so.
The Islands belong to Australia, and have a total population of about 600 people. The Islands were first inhabited around the mid 1800's and its main business was the production of Copra. This is made from coconuts and is used for the manufacture of coconut oil, coconut cream, coconut flakes, and lots of other products.
The water around the Islands is very clear and is supposed to be a great place for swimming and diving, plus sail boarding.
12.00hrs We have 290 miles to our destination.
13.30hrs We had a great display of whales jumping out of the water about 1 mile to the south of us. It was a spectacular sight to see these huge mammels leap so high into the air, some of them must weigh 60 tons or more, and it continued for at least 15 minutes.
Dinner today was cold lamb, with roast spuds, carrotts and peas.......... We definetly wont get fat on this lot.
For the rest of the day, we read books, kept turning off the friggin alarms which kept going off every so often, and having naps.
Another thing, the electronic chart of this area we ordered for the E120 Raymarine before we left Cork has no detail of the Cocos Islands on it, can you credit that... lucky for us, the RL80 chart which Terry brought out with him has all the necessary details, except that plotter is down below at the Navigation Desk.
Darkness fell and we had a good 20 knots of breeze pushing us along at 8.5 knots (with the benifit of a 1.5 knot current)
We think we had a bad day, but then, that's a rare occasion.
The night watches are :- 22.00hrs / 00.00hrs .........................................Terry
00.00hrs / 02.00hrs ..........................................Stephen
02.00hrs / 04.00hrs...........................................Aileen
04.00hrs / 06.00hrs...........................................Neil
06.00hrs / 08.00hrs...........................................Terry
That's all :-
Signed ............ Stephen Hyde (Skipper)