Nothing new to report after another uneventful 24 hours. Sophie covered 190 miles from noon to noon, averaging 7.9 knots of speed with the gennaker up during the day and the jib at night. 190 miles is considered a good day, even for a heavy cat like Sophie.

It is 3:00 AM Sophie time. Current position is 07 20.733n, 091.32.188e. We are sailing at 7.3 knots on a course of 270m with an 11 knot breeze slightly ahead of our beam. We have been on the same starboard tack for the entire 60 hours since we left Phuket. The wind died a bit in the afternoon so we ran an engine for a couple of hours to keep our speed up. We still have 330 gallons of fuel on board (including 2 fuel bladders on deck that we are trying out), which is enough for us to motor on both engines for the 1,090 miles between us and our destination of Male.

We are 560 miles from Sri Lanka, 708 miles from India, and 866 miles from Bangladesh. It’s kind of cool to see these countries on the same chart as Sophie.

Dinner last night was barracuda and Spanish mackerel in a coconut milk ginger sauce with bok choy, red rice, and lemonade. The Germans made apfulkuchen for dessert. The fish was from the freezer because we had no luck on the first day of our fishing program. At one point we did see a school of dolphins tear through our lures, causing some big fish following us to jump into the air. At least there are fish out here.

Sophie School had its first day. Leo was a rock star, and Hazel had a couple of transition issues. Today will be better.

We are basically a third of the way done with our passage. I couldn’t imagine an easier trip. There is no swell, small wind waves, and a consistent light northerly that keeps pushing us along. We have barely started, and I am already beginning to regret the end of the passage.

More tomorrow …