[Dar Es Salaam - Phuket] Day 12 -- Calm All the Way Ahead

With another day of no wind at all, we retrieved another weather forecast. It was no good news. Ahead was only calm, no wind whatsoever, for days. We now started to calculate through our diesel and wondered how far we would get on motor. With no sailing, there was just nothing to do on board. Days go by slowly and all we cared about was not to get sunburned and what would be the next meal. At night we'd watch a movie. By now we'd established movie nights shortly after dinner on a regular basis. Last night and the night before the two most recent "Godfather" movies were on and I preferred to stay on deck to watch the fishing line. It was the kind of classic epic movie I just couldn't seem to enjoy.

The night watches had somewhat changed. Noone managed to stay awake all night long with the engine drumming rythmically and the boat gently sweeping through the calm sea. On the other hand, the nights were magic now, with the moon gone and only the dim light of the stars present shining through a slight mist leaving you only guessing where the horizon might actually be. With some screens in the boat to shed some light on the cockpit and the main sail above it felt a bit like a cheaply installed or old time movie set. But this was real. You just couldn't seem to grasp it was as it appeared so unreal. By the twelfth day I had already encountered so many movie set scenes that it left me wondering whether I was really here. Time was becoming less important and would probably have faded away if it wasn't for our brother coming mid-november, a fact constantly in our minds making the journey somewhat of a race. And on a race, no wind is the worst. So the weather forecast left us just praying it might be wrong.

The afternoon brought a change. I have not even mentioned before as it seems to come naturally with the area we were in, but besides about five raindrops on the third day we'd had blue skies and sun all the way, an occasional small cloud giving only minutes relief from the heat. That afternoon brought clouds and rain, the first fresh water shower in almost two weeks. We could see it coming from far away and it was a beautyful sight with a wonderful light. From behind us, some low hanging rain clouds followed but didn't catch up while from the side another patch of clouds moved to our front and we drove right into them. The remainder of the horizon, though, stayed clear and bright blue as always while we were in good rain as if we had been provided with a humongous shower head all for ourselves including some wind that lasted just as long as the rain did. Well, long might not exactly the most descriptive term, but we had the chance to get completely wet, front and back. Then it stopped again, and so did the wind.

captains log:
no wind (1-2.5kn)
forecast one week no wind! will be running out of diesel
take off 40l from tank to have a reserve
1200 S1°56 E55°36
Engine: 20,5 = 162,25
S-wind 1-2kn, sea calm, long swell
lost fish
1745-18 offE, SSE - 13kn, unfurl Genoa
a bit of rain
shifting winds the whole night long