Rodrigues to Mauritius: Day 2
We’re still poled-out and charging along…we made 156 miles over ground, for a solid 6.5 knot average over 24 hours. The trades in the Indian Ocean are really giving us a good sail! We keep adding a bit of diesel-stabilizer and biocide to the fuel tank every now and then, because we haven’t touched our full tanks in so long…
I’m glad we left when we did–the winds are forecast to drop lighter on Monday afternoon, and we don’t want to be wallowing around in this swell. The winds dropped off a few knots today and we have the perfect amount of wind (around 15 knots) for a comfortable, fast ride. We’ve seen about a dozen freighters on the AIS, and we appear to be crossing a major shipping route from Africa to SE Asia. Extra eyeball scans on the night watch are a must!
The water and air temps are finally cooling down to a sane level (i.e. not sweating 24/7) and one of the additional perks is that our solar panels are cranking out more amps. Cooler panels make more electricity. We were able to run our water-maker longer, which means longer showers, more water for washing down the boat, etc etc… Our new (in NZ) air-cooled fridge is also working less-hard now, which frees up a ton of load on the battery banks. Privateer’s electrical system is optimized for temperate latitudes, and it’s nice to see everything working so well together again.
I finally connected with the Africa radio station today and we appear to be back in business. This is good, as now our attention is turned to the tough passage ahead, from Reunion to South Africa, where we will need to receive the most accurate weather forecasts every day in order to make safe decisions on our passage routing.
