Thurs 18th Oct
Everything went fine this morning, with very friendly farewells to everyone & no hiccups over paperwork! I was up well before 6am, cast off around 6.30 & was away after the big supply ship around 7am. I kept looking behind for the transit (showing the line to take through the outer reef) as I left - but both triangular structures are painted white & they've just put up white marquees behind the front one for this weekend's agricultural event in Port Mathurin - so it wasn't possible to see it at
all! But I made the exit through the reef without too much problem, even though the ship was way too fast and far ahead of me by the time I'd raised my mains'l. The wind had been gusty in harbour & I left raising the sail a bit too late to stay close behind the ship as intended!
The wind was excellent all day & overnight - I was making 7-7.5 kn regularly - SOG! Swell is big but not too bad..
I'd had a nice 'Mine' (noodles with chicken & vegetables) at a little inexpensive lunch place by the Tourist Office yesterday and came away with a 'doggy bag' - so that made a simple, tasty lunch for today!
Fri 19th Oct
Still making great time goosewinged - while the wind holds up... it's forecast to lessen by tomorrow. I've been under full canvas since this morning when I realised the wind was down to around 15-18kn. Swell is still fairly big at around 3m or so - & being on almost a dead run we're often rolling quite a lot which isn't too comfortable - but it's not all the time! Weather has been fine - sunny with quite a bit of light cumulus & high stratus.
I've made use of my new 'preventer extension' line to run it through a jammer & then optionally onto a winch via a block on the quarter - so I can keep the preventer nicely tensioned now without it taking up winch space all the time.
I also sewed tape onto the little courtesy flag kindly sent to me via the Quay Superintendent on Wed night by Mariana of the Rodrigues Tourist Office - so I'm now flying that ready for my arrival in Mauritius (which Rodrigues is part of).
Another job has been re-laying the frayed end of one of my favourite mooring lines - it was looking very sorry for itself..! More whipping to be done to complete the job.
A great 24hr noon-to-noon run, measured from midday GPS positions: 165 n.ml. (173 n.ml. by the log) By 4 o'clock this afternoon, less than 130 n.ml. to go to Port Louis on Mauritius - so looking good for an early afternoon arrival, even if the wind drops.