The Mauritius Command

Kudos to Patrick O'Brien. 

The planning and preparation for our own Mauritius trip is in the final stage. The guys arrived as scheduled yesterday. Steve Bott, Dan Strehlow and Booth Devitt will be a great crew and we are all looking forward to a fun trip. The boat has been watered and fueled. More fuel than we have ever carried before is on board. We should be able to motor at least eight hundred miles if necessary. Airstream is probably heavier than it has ever been and sits lower than ever. The excellent light air performance of this boat will get a test in the initial stages of the voyage. Commander's Weather gives us a decent forecast and will act as forecasting and routing throughout the trip. We've got most of the provisioning done. Sufficient Oreos, Ritz Crackers and popcorn have been stowed away. We'll survive somehow. Only bread is left to come on board tomorrow.

Bill, Booth, Steve and Dan

It's three thousand nautical miles on the rhumb line from Phuket to Mauritius. We average one hundred and fifty miles a day so the voyage should take twenty days, right? The Chagos Archipelago lies almost midway so if we have time, I have a permit for the Chagos, we'll stop for a day or two. Supposed to be a fantastic place.

We can expect light to moderate NE winds from the NE monsoon until nearing the equator. Then there should be a narrow band of westerlies and then, hopefully  at around five degrees south, the SE trades will fill in and we bear away for Mauritius. My big concerns are not enough wind north of the equator and too much wind, in the form of tropical storms, south of the line.

Nellie, Dave 'the rigger's African Gray

I'll be able to update the blog via sailmail emails using HF radio. If you are interested in tracking our position go to the Pangolin website at: http://www.pangolin.co.nz/
On the left of the home page you'll see a link for "reporting boats". Scroll down the list to our call sign "KI6IKE" and you should see "Airstream". A click on the "track" info on the right should yield our position display.

Cruiser Camaraderie

We've said goodbye to some dear friends over the past couple weeks. People are heading out on their own cruises. We have had one more night of socializing and  we're off tomorrow, the 22nd  Phuket date, on the tide at about 1100 local time.

Love to all,
Bill, Booth, Dan and Steve