The wind has been playing tricks on us today. Firstly it lulled us into thinking the fabled gentle NE monsoon had settled down to its advertised 10-20kn; instead the wind and sea built overnight and by the morning it was time to put a couple of reefs in the main. Then just as we were setup for the reality of 25-30kn of wind, it changed tactics and rapidly lost strength. So we were back to full sail trying to make the most of the dying wind in a sloppy sea. As if deliberately taunting us it then shifted to the west - a head wind - so the best course we could set was SW, taking us south of our desired course, although at least it's taking us away from the busy shipping routes. As I write this 23:30, the wind has completely died and we've furled the genoa, lashed the main in the centre and decided we'll drift and catch-up on some sleep until the wind changes its mind again.
The good news is that before the wind vanished we were making excellent progress and passed our waypoint off the southern coast of Sri Lanka mid-morning. We're now on the final leg of this passage 267deg to the Maldives.
David wins the Master Chef honours today for his sterling efforts in the galley creating sushi for lunch.
Time to adjust the clocks - it's been getting lighter later and later in the mornings. Looking at our longitude we should be on Indian time GMT +5½, but having a half hour in the timezone seems unnecessarily complicated so we've adopted Pakistan and Maldivian time of +5GMT. Slowly but surely we're getting closer to home.
Position @ 23:00 (GMT +5) 19/1/2008: N4deg 49.9' E79deg 29.2
Distance to Maldives: 359
Daily run: 143
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