Oh these maddening Easterlies!!

For the last two days we have been getting strong Easterlies forcing us to head South instead of East. This is something totally unexpected for these latitudes where the normal wind direction is supposed to be Westerly! By evening we had almost reached the latitude of Cape Horn, and the end of the Skipper's patience! So tacked and now making slow NE progress against a swell. Not the most comfortable way to sail with the boat falling off the swell and hammering in the troughs every now and then, but there didn't seem much choice unless the destination was Antarctica! It has been drizzling throughout making everything damp and cold. Hoping for the wind to shift, well it has to eventually, in any direction but the East!

          Since Jessica mentioned my blog on hers there seems to be a sudden increase in comments and questions. While it may be difficult to answer all from a bouncy boat, here are answers to a few common ones. I do not have any HF communication so all communication is by normal e mail using Fleet Broadband. I started from Mumbai on 19 Aug and stopped at Fremantle & Lyttelton enroute. Plan to stop at Port Stanley and Cape Town before heading home so one can say I am around the half way point of my trip. My boat Mhadei was named after the old name of the river she was built on. The river is called Mandovi these days and runs through the state of Goa on the West Coast of India.