Sophie has covered 265 miles in her first 35 hours on our passage from Phuket to the the Maldives, averaging over 7.5 knots of boat speed over the first part of our 1,500 mile journey. That’s right, Sophie is on the road again. Sorry for not updating the blog over the last 2 months. We’ve been crazy busy with a side trip to Cambodia and Laos, a 2 week haulout where we fixed multiple systems and painted the bottom, a 3 week visit to Seattle to see friends and family over the holidays, and then a mad 5 day scramble to provision and fix a bunch of things that broke at the last minute. Jenna and I have some writing to do and will share more about our fantastic November and December.

But it’s all good right now. This is our first offshore passage in over a year. We have 8 souls on board: my brother Rich (a veteran of our Marguesas passage), his adult children Kate and Nic, our friend from Seattle/Munich Travis, plus Jenna, the kiddies, and I.

It is 3:00 AM Sophie time (UTC + 7) on January 13. Our current position is 07 38.205N, 094 10.652E. Our course is 272m, making a speed of 7.5 knots with full main and jib on a broad reach with a lovely 10 knot breeze from the NNE. Swells are under a meter. There has been no rain.

We have actually slowed down in the last couple of hours and were making 8-10 knots since noon yesterday. We had the gennaker up for the entire day. Life is good. At this speed we will reach our destination of Male in under a week.

We’ve spent the first 36 hours of the passage getting our sea legs and organizing the cabin. I’ve only had to repair two toilets so far. The pump in Hazel’s head needed a complete servicing (I wish she wouldn’t swallow so many hair rubber bands), and I had to replace the Stephen Fell memorial joker valve in the yellow room’s head.

Overall the crew is pretty happy, because it is hard to not be happy when you are sailing at 8 knots in flat seas on a passage in the tropics. Leo was queasy for much of yesterday, and we will try to get Sophie School going today. First night’s dinner was pasta, and last night we had cheeseburgers. The fishing program will begin in earnest at sunrise as we pass north of the Nicobars. 5 lines are going in.

We are so very, very lucky. Nothing lightens your mood like a smooth bottom, a favorable current, and fair winds.