Day 1:
The excitement of the departure made it difficult to sleep during our breaks.
Being two on board, we have 2 hours on and 2 hours off to: eat, sleep, personal hygiene, and entertain ourselves with books, music, and Netflix!
For this race, we really have all the comforts. The skipper, Masa, having to spend over 200 hours at sea in total, during the boat preparation, really took care of all the details to make life on board agile and comfortable.
So far, calm conditions on a broad reach. But in the next few days, we will face a front and then very cold conditions in the southern seas.
Day 2
What colors the Indian Ocean gives us!
Spectacular day with sun and light wind in the stern. We take advantage of the heat and the boat that goes alone to rest, eat and have some fun. Tomorrow is expected the passage of a front, fortunately not too active, but still we expect a nice intense upwind.
Day 3
Today we passed the first cold front. We will probably encounter others on the route to Auckland.
It wasn’t particularly active. Now we are running fast on a broad reach with 20 knots and not too choppy seas. A truly enjoyable navigation.
The choice to head south immediately has so far proved to be a more risky than profitable investment. The routage sees us with a slight advantage in the next few days, but it’s hard to say. We are doing our best to make Milai run fast and the boat gives us great satisfaction.
Day 4
Complicated day. Not for the intensity of the wind… It was all day bouncing around, jumping and spinning. But mostly jumping, from 8kt to 22kt in a few moments.
The water sweeps the deck… what to do?
Give canvas and reduce? Energy and extra road to maneuver.
Stay under-canvassed in lulls? Safe solution, but slow.
Stay over-canvassed in gusts? The risk of damaging the equipment is high… and for Auckland the road is long, but above all to complete the round-the-world race.
The sailor wants one thing, the man another, and the athlete another still.
Day 5
We moved south of the fleet to bypass a high-pressure zone (no wind).
Despite having the opportunity to download weather data here, we fell into it…
A bit out of naivety, a bit out of uncertainty in the models.
All to be redone, all to be reconstructed.
Anyway, a tasty day, Masa shared Japanese freeze-dried food with me.
Wow, really tasty.
Day 6
Today the sun returned to shine, bright and warm.
After cloudy and cold days… a tough and dark night working to get out of the calm… it’s a wonderful treat.