Tonight is our last night of the passage to Mauritius! We celebrated with spaghetti and meat sauce, garlic bread, and cabbage salad.
I am pleased with my provisioning. While we were on “rationing” of some items (milk and eggs) for the last few days, we managed to stretch them out to the end, using the last of the eggs for the celebration cake tonight. We still have about a half box of UHT milk for breakfast tomorrow.
The Indian Ocean, known for rougher weather, did not disappoint. We had plenty of wind and waves at the beginning, then a lull just in time for the Babsea maneuvers and some R&R, then the wind surged again and we’ve been accompanied by 20-knot winds and 3-5 meter waves ever since.
Joe’s strategy of holding off on turning left to Mauritius has worked. Our weather forecasts showed lightening winds that would shift aft so he instructed us to keep the boat pointed north until the wind shifted. That way, we could avoid going dead downwind (an angle Charm doesn’t like) and would be better positioned to take advantage of lighter winds with a more desirable angle. Since yesterday evening, as we watched Charm go further and further north, away from the direct line to Mauritius, all of us have asked Joe, “Can I turn left now?” He continued to hold out until finally he gave the word. We are now headed directly for our destination, with no decline in speed (or wind). Who knows what the night holds but, with only 112 miles to go, we should have no difficulties arriving before lunch tomorrow. Joe’s guesstimate for our arrival was tomorrow at 12 pm – pretty good for a 2,350 mile passage!
We had a mellow day on board. The kids did a version of school, I got to take a nap, people watched movies during the rainstorms, and we generally passed the time. Joe started cutting his own hair yesterday afternoon with our electric trimmers. The battery ran down midway through so he resumed today. Then he mowed a strip down the top of his scalp and the trimmers died. Instead of asking for help, he decided to shave his head. It eventually became a family project, with Marin and Tully and I helping to clean up the parts he couldn’t see. So Joe will enter Mauritius with a new look!
I am most excited to do some laundry. We’ve had very high humidity and rainstorms the past few days so everything is quite damp, including the sheets that got soaked with sea water a few days ago.
After clearing, we will take the rest of tomorrow off, then do a massive cleaning on Tuesday, taking full advantage of our large crew to deep clean several spots that haven’t seen any vinegar spray in quite some time!