The evening sky lights up above the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal 2
Saturday, 26 February 2011, Bay of Bengal, day 2
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The evening sky lights up above the Bay of Bengal |
Dear Friends and Family,
It's been an interesting sail. The GRIBs did not report much wind for this area yet we've had good sailing breezes until noon today. Now we've got a very light breeze from dead astern (a very slow point for all sailboats) so we're motor-sailing.
Last night we had complete cloud cover and no moon until after midnight. The open ocean gets VERY black without even stars to guide us. Sue, having slept some and therefore having more functioning brain cells got quite poetic in her journal:
"Jon had promised me a moon on my midnight‑4am watch, a way to lighten my spirit this first of 8 nights at sea. But high lightning played between huge cotton ball clouds. Over the sea, squalls came as diaphanous clouds, shedding misty rain, then left behind a dark sky. No moon. In our wake phosphorescence danced. No stars in the sky, but stars in the sea."
The phosphorescence is indeed bright behind us at night. Luckily, the clouds have been gradually parting all day. We still have about 80% cloud cover, but we should have some stars tonight. Vamp copped a 30 knot squall last night, which we're very glad missed us.
We've been emailing friends in Chennai to see what haul‑out facilities are available. There's a fair fishing fleet based there, so there should be something. We've also been talking to Japan and Singapore to get a new seal flown in, Singapore being half the price despite Yanmar being a Japanese company. In the meantime, our secondary seal seems to be holding.
At noon today we were at 11°44'N 90°08'E, or 146nm from the Andaman Islands with 582nm to go to Chennai. We are both well, if somewhat sleep deprived as always happens at the beginning of a passage.
Fair winds and calm seas -- Jon and Sue Hacking
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