9 October 2010
Yesterday was the most wonderful sailing day. Steady trade winds, sunny skies, the ocean, majestic. Voyageur surfs down the big swells her motion relaxed and rhythmic. We are making such good progress that I can think now of little else but landfall. With 500nm to go it is too early to know for sure of we can make Mauritius by Monday. So much depends on the winds over the next couple of days and they are forecast to die down. This is by no means the longest ocean passage we have done but it has been the toughest, therefore we anticipate its conclusion with greater than usual excitement. The familiar friendly faces will be there waiting on the dockside ready to take our lines. For us this is one of the real pleasures of being part of a rally. We will regale each other with stories of the gale. Everyone will have their own story to tell. We have our own, a damaged genoa pole. There are the other ones we know about, a Jonbouy lost to the ocean, a spinnaker wrapped around the forestay, a spinnaker in the water with the sheet around the prop, a loss of the autopilot early on in the passage, the crew hand steering for the remainder. Now we hear on the net, of a liferaft, washed overboard.
Our plotted route will take us well to the south of Rodriguez Island. From there it is just under 400nm to Mauritius. With two seamounts to the east and to the northwest we do not wish to be anywhere near that area. Then, once he sees what the predicted wind direction will be, David will make a judgement whether to go round the top of the island saving 30nm or to go the more straightforward route round its southern tip.
Susan Mackay