Location: 34° 30 S, 88° 20 E
Saturday 12:00, 02.10.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 34° 30 S, 88° 20 E at noon on February 10. The wind is 230 degrees magnetic at 30 gusting to 40. The seas are 20 to 30 feet from the Southwest, very large, but rarely breaking on us. The sun is out and the conditions are improving.

Last night we watched the barometer fall rapidly and realized that after all the quite time, we were in for a “summer” Southern Indian Ocean Gale. We doused the fore, double reefed the main and jibed over to head north as fast as we could go. During the night the wind blew 35 knots steadily with gusts to 52. Dawn was welcome, though it did show the large seas which just had been a physical rather than visual experience during the night.

At about noon we jibed back to starboard and are now headed for Fremantle, which is now 1380 NM away. We are doing ten knots. We have come 3175 NM from the Seychelles.

This low is moving ahead of us quickly and our wind should be down to 15 knots by 2000. We’ll see.
There is another, bigger low and cold front following this first one in a few days. We will take more timely avoidance maneuvers for the next one. We are six days out of Fremantle at this speed.

We are mostly dry and warm below decks. The off duty watches can sleep.

All is well.