We had a lovely start to the day, sailing in flat seas and enjoying a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 7.5 to 8 Kts, under sunny blue skies. We slowed down slightly in the early afternoon, but the winds soon picked up again, although they changed direction too, but we still managed a suitable SOG of around 7 Kts. It wasn’t long afterwards, though, that our VMG (Velocity Made Good) went downhill when the wind stopped and a delightful current developed on the nose requiring both engines to keep our SOG above 5 Kts.

Regardless, Roy continued his baking streak; this time submarine bread rolls, which we enjoyed for lunch with Italian prosciutto ham and French brie cheese.

Dinner was another helping of the buffalo stew we’d make in Uligamu and had frozen. Strangely enough, though, we still have some fresh produce onboard, including apples and carrots, both of which make a nice healthy snack.

We haven’t seen much in the way of sea-life these past few days, with the exception of some large swooping sea birds, which we have been unable to identify; not quite as big as a pelican, but certainly much larger than a sea eagle.

The usual chats to our cruising friends continue to stave off the monotony, but hopefully that’ll change in the few days as we approach civilisation again, where we can stop and take a break from all the sailing, stock up on fresh produce, as well as top up on our diesel, although we’ve definitely not used as much diesel as we did on our passage from Thailand to Uligamu. Guess time will tell if that changes!

With that, we wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. For us Valentine’s Day was a romantic handwritten note to each other on our paper chart as we tracked our progress on our separate watch.