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Firefly - Smooth sailing to Mauritius



Many of the smaller boats in the WARC fleet were delayed at their last stop at Christmas Island due to last week's tropical low. Therefore the decision was taken to postpone the restart from Cocos Keeling until Tuesday 4th October to give them a little more time to prepare. However, following the very windy spell the forecast was for increasingly light winds in this area - it would be almost calm within a few days. It therefore made sense for Firefly to leave early and the anchor was hauled up at 1620 on Sunday 2nd.

Firefly in company with 2 other World ARC boats, Exocet and Carango, stormed west in winds over 20 knots with a surprisingly rough sea the first night. Progress was so good that Firefly clocked up 360 miles in the first 48 hours, averaging 7.5 knots and equalling some of her best passage speeds. Since then the wind has gradually eased and the engine was required for a couple of hours early Wednesday morning and is on again now at 1200 on Wednesday 5th October. The weather forecast and GRIB files both indicate that we will be back in the wind again soon and there are signs, particularly increasing cloud cover ahead that indicate the breeze should soon fill in again. Before the wind disappeared this morning we had 3 hours with the 'Admiral' (our Gennaker) - the first airing of this colourful sail since we returned to collect Firefly from Malaysia.

After the rough first night it has been lovely smooth sailing with very comfortable temperatures and sunny days. Life on board has settled into a good passage making routine. Gareth and Hugh have adapted well to sailing on board Firefly. The 3 hour on and 6 off watch system is working well and we are eating some good food. Sadly we were too late getting to the pineapple we bought in Cocos and the fish are now devouring that. On this passage we have a lot of bread including 2 loaves made by the baker Tony from the 'Early Bird' Bakery on West Island. These hand made Cobb type loaves toast very well and there is now a rendezvous for breakfast in the cockpit each morning. Unlike the Skipper the crew don't relish muesli and are enjoying the change.

It is still over 1800 nautical miles to Mauritius with just under 500 sailed so far. Once we are back in the wind the longer term forecast looks good and we will hopefully by making landfall sometime on Sunday 16th October, if not before.

Paul, Gareth and Hugh
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