Our month in the beautiful Maldives Islands has absolutely flown by. It seems like we just made landfall a few days ago, and now Male has dropped below the horizon in our wake. It’s been a very relaxing and pleasant break to our journey across the Indian Ocean from Asia to the Middle East.
This morning at 0930 we picked up our anchor in the North Male Atoll for the last time and slipped out of the pass into the open ocean to the west. A sea turtle and two large manta rays were hanging out in the pass to bid us farewell. With very little in the way of wind, we motor-sailed for an hour or so till the breeze filled in to 8-9 knots and we were able to cut the engine and quietly glide along at 5-6 knots. With calm seas and low stress levels, the beginning of this passage has been a real joy.
Two good friends joined us in Male for the 1380-nautical-mile passage northwest to Salalah in Oman. Returning as Moo-Crew is Tim Prior, who was with us for the trip from Sydney, Australia to New Caledonia via Lord Howe Island way back in 2001. Tim is a marine biologist from wayyyyyy down under in Hobart, Tasmania. Thanks to his recent bride, Karin, for granting him a hall pass for the voyage. Kurt Boyle is a first timer on Moonshadow and this is his first bluewater passage, so we hope not to frighten him off of ocean sailing. Kurt, currently sporting a cool mohawk (Tim calls it a “fauxhawk”), is a businessman and minister from Auckland. He’s one of the crazy Stewart 34 owner/sailors that I race with regularly during my summers in New Zealand, and happens to be a former classmate of Merima. He says he’s already enjoying it out on the ocean with the volume of life turned down a bit. We also thank his wife Inger for releasing him from his work/family/home obligations for a couple of weeks so he could come way out here and play with us on the big blue highway.
From all the information that we’ve gathered, passages in the North Indian Ocean at this time of the year during the northeast monsoon are generally pretty benign and pleasant. We’re on the trailing edge of most of the cruising fleet heading to the Mediterranean this season, and many of those before us have struggled with too little wind. I suppose our biggest challenges will be to sail enough miles to conserve our precious fuel, while keeping the speed up so we can meet travel schedules, and avoiding the myriad of drift lines/nets present in the Arabian Sea as we approach the Arabian Peninsula. Can we make it in ten days or less? We’ll keep you posted daily on how we’re doing.
As we close, the wind is up above ten knots from the northeast, just forward of the beam, and we’re sailing comfortably in slight seas at just over eight knots, smack on the rhumb line to Salalah. Life is good!
March 13
We enjoyed a lovely day of sailing yesterday, but in the evening, the wind gradually faded away. Finally at 0045 hours we capitulated and started the engine, then motorsailed on and off until late this morning. Fortunately, the seas are slight, so it feels as if we haven’t left the anchorage. Everyone was able to get a good sleep last night.
The weather is still stuck on beautiful, with mostly clear skies and light breezes. We’ve been sailing in 6-8 knots of breeze with the spinnaker up, making 4-5 knots. Not fast, but very comfortable and quiet. My guess is the wind will fade away again tonight so we’ll be in for some more engine time. The good news is that the grib files are showing that we can expect, well let’s say hope for, fifteen knots on the quarter starting in a day or so. That said, the grib files have been very dodgy since I’ve been tracking forecast versus actual winds.
The sea around us has been keeping us well entertained along the way. Merima reports that on her watch last night there was an incredible display of bioluminescence. Shipping traffic was nil last evening, but sea life has been abundant throughout the day. There have been plenty of flying fish, and large patches of activity where birds and tuna are feeding on bait fish. A couple of times we dragged the fishing line through with no luck. We did have one on the line this afternoon, but it escaped with a mighty fight before we could get it on board. Tim spotted a mahi-mahi chilling out in the shade of the spinnaker as we ghosted along. We also spotted a shark off the stern, or as Tim called it, “a man in a gray suit.” Surfing lingo.
Otherwise, we’re enjoying the ride, chilling out and waiting for the breeze to fill in. In our first 24 hours, we made it 153 miles closer to Salalah, aided by a nice breeze yesterday. The second day’s run will be well shy of that due to the light airs.
March 14
By Monday afternoon we all seemed to have settled into life at sea. Everyone is feeling well in the gentle conditions, and we’re all getting a reasonable amount of sleep.
Winds were very light as we sailed all afternoon under spinnaker. Finally at 5 pm, the winds dropped to about 3 knots and the spinnaker collapsed. No sooner had we doused the kite and configured Moonshadow for motorsailing, the wind went forward and popped up to ten knots. We were able to make good way throughout the night. The 24-hour run from the day before was just 127 nautical miles, but we were happy to be sailing and saving fuel that we may need as the winds drop when we approach Oman.
The breeze gradually built throughout yesterday. By dinnertime we were making better than 8 knots over the bottom with at least a half knot of countercurrent holding us back.
There is not much to report on the fishing front, other than Tim is considering ways to marinate his old Moonshadow cap. He proclaimed that if we didn’t catch a fish on the passage he’d eat his hat.
Yesterday was a most delightful day, seeming to pass very quickly as we listened and sang along to music, told stories and jokes, enjoyed some good meals, and - as is typical when there are Kiwis and Aussies on the same boat - lots of good humored ribbing.
We expect to reach the halfway point on the passage sometime tomorrow.
March 15
We really can’t ask for much better sailing conditions, as the winds have been pretty steady between 10 and 15 knots on the beam for the last day, and the engine has been quiet. We had our best day’s run for the passage so far at 181 nautical miles.
We came from the back roads into the busy shipping lanes starting yesterday morning. Merima called me on deck as she thought she had spotted a small island. I would have thought so too, excepting there were no charted islands for about 500 miles in any direction. Looking through the spynoculars, we could see that it was a fully loaded container ship. The only difference was that this one was easily more than twice the size of any other we’d seen before. It was eight miles off, so all we could see were the stacks of containers above deck level. I did a quick guesstimate and figured that that ship could have been carrying 5000 containers on board. From the bridge, which was about two-thirds of the way aft, the containers were stacked so that they gently sloped down to the bow. This was obviously so they could have some visibility forward, but resulted in it looking like the slope of a small volcanic island.
We continued to see ships and possibly a fishing boat or two into the evening. Kurt reckons the fishing boats are wasting their time out here, as there are no fish.
Otherwise, it was a very pleasant and relaxing day at sea. Merima whipped up a batch of red beans and rice for dinner and afterwards we all had some good belly laughs listening to Kevin Bloody Wilson.
We expect to reach the half way point before happy hour today.
March 16
Yesterday was a pretty good day on board. We had nice breeze throughout the day and managed to put some mileage under the keel. Our 24-hour run from the day before was 177, and all of that was under sail. The weather continues to be stuck on beautiful and the only complaint is that the winds can get a bit light at times.
We finally broke the fishing curse and landed two small mahi-mahi yesterday morning. It was the first time in more than two years that we had caught mahi, and it was great to have some fresh fish again.
We reached the geographic halfway point to the passage yesterday at about 1330 hours and are hoping to cover the second half of the passage in less time. Winds were fresh for most of the day, reaching over 20 knots at times, and giving us some 9-knot hours with just white sails. The wind gradually eased during the evening and by 0300 the sails were flogging in the beam seas and we were down to about 3 knots over the ground. So, for the time, we’re motorsailing and hoping the breeze will fill in again today.
All is well on board and we’re projecting landfall in Salalah sometime on Monday.
March 17
We’ve been plagued by light winds since early yesterday morning, true to form with many of the cruising fleet approaching Salalah before us this season. After a nice 15-20 knot northeasterly, it’s a bit disappointing to be burning a bunch of dinosaur juice and rolling in the leftover seas. Daily run was 184 miles, which is not too bad considering we’ve been pushing into a half-knot to a knot of countercurrent. I suppose this is the payback for all the tail currents we had on the way to the Maldives.
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| Merima and Kurt chilling out. |
Otherwise, it has been very quiet. We appear to be clear of the east-west shipping lane, as we’ve not seen any traffic in ages. We also seem to be in a no-fish zone. It would be great to catch one more before landfall and have something in the freezer. We’ve passed a few patches where birds and big fish have been working on the bait fish, but no luck for us.
As of this writing, we have less than 400 miles to go to Salalah. We hope the grib files go back to being totally inaccurate, as the forecast for the remainder of the passage is very light breezes from the northeast to east. At the moment we have a few knots out of the southeast, right on the stern.
Otherwise, we’re all well and enjoying the easy pace. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all - we’ll be sipping on an Irish Coffee tonight after dinner.
March 18
The fickle winds out here in the Arabian Sea have been keeping us challenged. Throughout the day yesterday they were up and down, and shifting more than 100 degrees, completely contrary to the forecast shown on the grib files. At one point with the winds light and bang on the stern, we had to drop the main altogether and motor to avoid flogging the new sail to death. For awhile, with calm seas and a nice breeze, we were able to sail with just the spinnaker, averaging better than five knots. In one 24-hour period, we managed to use virtually every sail/no-sail combination imaginable, and no shortage of engine time in the light airs. Our 24-hour run from the day before was 165 miles, affected quite a bit by a half knot to a knot of negative current.
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| Tim surfin’ the Shadow. |
Just before dinner Tim caught a small skipjack tuna, which will be on the menu for this evening. After dinner, we celebrated St. Patrick’s day with an Irish coffee, some good music, and a bit of dancing on the bridge deck. As we motorsailed along, the bioluminescence created by the prop left a long lighted trail behind Moonshadow looking like the tail of a comet. Kurt, feeling a bit warm from the evening air, the physical activity and the coffee, did a strip tease for us - right down to his NZ All Blacks knickers. Good thing there were no neighbors as we were laughing and singing loudly well into the evening.
Early this morning, the breeze filled in, this time from the south, and we’re now sailing a reach in 12 to 14 knots of breeze, closing in on Salalah at the rate of about 8.5 knots. Before sunrise, we were passed closely by an aircraft carrier, a reminder of the part of the world we’re now in. With all its flashing colored lights, it looked like a Las Vegas casino. Just after sunrise, we received a short escort by a pod of very large dolphins in a playful mood.
As of this writing, we have just over 200 miles to go to Salalah, so we should arrive there sometime tomorrow afternoon.
March 19
Sunday was a relaxing day spent enjoying a fast beam reach and watching the miles wind down in anticipation of landfall in Salalah today. We were in 9’s and 10’s and Merima set the day’s speed record on the helm with a 10.7, while maintaining our course, of course.
Completely contrary to the weather forecast, we’ve had a fresh southwesterly for the last couple of days which has kept us moving along while giving the engine a rest. The only bad news is that we’ve been plagued by a 1- to 1.5-knot countercurrent.
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| George with a yellowfin tuna. |
Just before sunset yesterday, we continued our fishing rally by landing a 15-pound yellowfin tuna. Merima cooked up half of one of the huge fillets and the rest went into the freezer.
Last night we had our first encounter with drift net fishermen. They were able to communicate clearly where THEY were, but couldn’t seem to answer when asked how far out their nets extended. We stayed well clear and made it past with no dramas. We were happy to be past that bit, as there was no moon last night and it was as dark as inside a cow.
This morning we saw our first raindrops in quite some time. Not enough to give the decks a wash, but the 100% cloud cover is keeping things cool.
At 1140 hours Land Ho was called when we spotted some low-lying land to the north of Salalah on the coast of Oman, from about 10 miles offshore.
We arrived in Port Salalah at 1345 hours, completing the 1371-nautical-mile passage in 8 days, 5-3/4 hours, for an average speed made good on the best possible course of just under 7 knots. This was the slowest average passage speed we’ve had in years, mainly due to the light winds and countercurrents - but with great company, good food and pleasant weather, it has certainly been one of the most enjoyable passages. We’re all looking forward to a post-sail rum (or two) this evening at sundown.
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