Searching for Trade Winds

It has been over ten days since we said our good bye to the Southern Ocean and landed under a High Pressure system which seemed very reluctant to move in the usual Easterly direction and give us some decent wind. A couple of days of light winds were welcomed by the crew after the fury of the Southern Ocean and duly enjoyed lounging on the deck in the cool breeze having good food, doing a bit of maintenance and catching up on "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The cook got into action serving a wide variety, from the quintessential Bombay fare of Bhelpuri, to Thai curries, Pasta & Risotto! While the crew was having a whale of a time the Skipper was wondering about over 4000 Nm of Indian Ocean yet to be covered!

As the High pressure system slowly inched Eastward, the wind started picking up, unfortunately from North North East which is exactly the direction we want to go in. Thanks to the direction of the wind and the resultant swell we have been sailing close hauled for over a week now barely managing to do either a NNW or ESE course with frequent tacks, sail changes and the boat pitching all the time. While we are still about 300 Nm from the Tropic of Capricorn, the weather has already started showing signs of the tropics with day temperatures in the 30 Cs and occasional squalls which give gusty winds from any direction while they are around and take away most of the wind when they move on leaving us with a nice swell for company! The ever present Albatross have parted company and we should be entering the territory of Dolphins & Flying Fish soon.

The weather forecast is predicting NE winds for a few more days till we meet up with the steady SE Trade winds for making a dash to the Equator!

Been reading about Jessica and the weather she has been facing. Despite the slow progress we are making I don't envy her much for that! Looks like she is in for a fast run home!