Thursday, January 15, 2009

Acrobatic dolphins

It's been an exciting day. We've left the confused waters of the Andaman sea well behind us and in exchange we've been surfing down the large swells in the Indian Ocean. Added to which we've had a decent wind and have been making great progress. It's not the most comfortable ride, but exhilarating, surfing down the waves and watching the speed frequently break the 10 knot barrier. So much so that we've beaten our 24 hour distance record, making 182.7 nautical miles in 24 hours.

We also had our second dolphin visit of the trip. Today's visit was special - I don't remember having wild dolphins put on such an acrobatic show solely for our benefit. Today's school entertained with synchronized jumps clear of the water, shooting out of breaking waves, tail stands and back flips. The show lasted for 15 minutes, with one straggler staying on after the school had departed for a final encore of back flips. Stunning.

David's brief period of seasickness is well behind him, with a tricky juggling act in the galley resulting in a couple of great salads for lunch. It's not quite "master chef" competitive cooking yet, but I'll have to make sure I deliver the goods after a couple of dubious dishes.

This evening the wind's shifted, we're now on my favourite point of sail - a beam reach. The motion is a lot easier - less rolling and we're still hurtling west.

Position @ 23:00 (GMT +7) 14/1/2008: N5deg 52.9' E89deg 56.5
Distance to Sri Lanka: 560.9
Daily run: 182.7

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