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Trade Winds

I was surprised to discover that it's Sunday today. The days seem to merge together when you're out at sea, with nothing but the steady trade winds pushing you along.  The constant motion of the boat and the sound of the wind in the sails and the waves becomes a soothing rhythm. It's easy to lose track of the days when you're surrounded by nothing but the sea. But that's part of the charm of being out here, living in the moment. 

The wind is blowing constantly at 15 - 20 knots, and we are clocking off 150 - 170nm days. This is what catamarans are made for: gliding over the waves with minimal heeling and maximum comfort. The wind is at a great angle, and we can sail with our 'pre reefed' main and a genoa.
The reason I keep referring to the main as 'pre reefed' is because it's a delivery sail that's a little bit too small. 

The chart plotter constantly displays plenty of information including how miles  to the destination and the time to go, and in the interest of on board moral I've had to make an adjustment to the screen. Looking at the chart plotter, it's impossible to not look at how far we have to go, and it's really the only sign of how slow we are actually going. In the morning we could have 967nm to go, and hours later it's showing 948nm. And sometimes the time to go in the morning will be 6 days, 7 hrs, and then I look later and it's even longer and will be showing 7 days 4 hrs if we've slowed down. A few pieces of masking tape have helped restore my sanity.

We have also had to deal with some minor challenges yesterday. A wind shift at sunset meant we had to head slightly further south to keep a good angle on the wind, and at 3am we had to gybe to avoid Australia. Yes, you read that right: we had to avoid Australia. It turns out that our course was taking us too close to the Australian coast, and we would have entered their territorial waters if we had continued on that track. We didn't want to risk any trouble with the authorities, so we decided to steer clear of the land down under. Aside from the increased risk of crocs I suspect the punishment is to make you eat vegemite. 

We are now back almost on course, heading towards Kupang. We have about 600nm left to go, and we hope to arrive in a few days. 
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