After a good sail all night, averaging 6 Kts on the genoa alone and exiting the Andaman Sea through the Great Channel as planned, this morning, at first light, we hoisted the mainsail, happy that we’d given ourselves two days to ease into the passage without too much effort and dealing with our larger sails. Averaging 7.6 Kts on a beam reach, we were on track to pass south of Sri Lanka, but, more importantly, south of the busy shipping corridor running from the Suez Canal, Gulf of Oman and India / Sri Lanka down the Malacca Strait and through the Singapore Strait to the Far East and the Americas and visa versa. We’d barely settled down to breakfast, though, when we spotted a pod of dolphins passing our bow. They didn’t come to play, however, which is very unusual, but we were delighted to see them nonetheless; been ages since we’ve seen any decent sea-life actually.

Elaine, however, never quite made it to the end of her early morning shift. Fortunately Roy woke up with a 1/2 hour of her watch remaining as Elaine struggled to stay awake and deal with nausea after taking her weekly methotrexate, forgetting that on our last passage from Australia to Indonesia, we’d switched the watch schedule around on a Sunday night to accommodate this weekly occurrence. Fortunately after an hours rest, she felt as right as rain again.

Under sunny, clear skies, having left the Nicobar Islands and the Indonesia island of Sumatra in the distance, we continued west with a variety of cargo ships and tankers for company, some passing within a mile of us.

By lunchtime we had no choice, but to drop the mainsail, given that a nasty swell had developed and was causing it to slam; the age old problem we’ve experienced on most passages. However, our full 150% genoa didn’t falter, giving us an average SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 8.5 Kts; we definitely weren’t complaining!

Our evening net was a wonderful break in the day to hear familiar voices, but, more importantly, to know that both Golden Spirit (Michael and Caroline) and Talulah Ruby III (Andy and Paul) were not far behind us, all progressing on the same COG (Course Over Ground) as ourselves, albeit that Talulah Ruby III was slightly further south. It’s always comforting to have other yachts around, although, on this passage, we’re definitely not short of company.