Lars at the helm with Galle Fort in the back

It took more time than planned to clear out of Galle. Again the agent didn’t do a proper work. First at one PM we let go of the mooring. What a feeling, I would not see land for the next period of eight days or so, depending on how close we would pass the Nicobar Island. The watches started at 3 PM and I took the first. From now on I would never be able to sleep for more than 5 and a half hour in one piece. As we were three we had to sit on watch three hours and be off duty for six hour. I have never been so fixed on eight strokes (midnight, 3 AM, 6 AM and so on) in my life. It was not so hard in the beginning, everything was new. After some days it started to be a routine but at the end it was a bit frustrating. Tha watch from 3 AM to 6 AM was by far the hardest, at the end I was close to falling a sleep. Luckey that never happened at night, but I can admit, daytime I took a nap here and there.

On the way out of Galla harbour

Ahaed of us laid 1 100 NM of Indian Ocean and Lars planned about 110 NM a day making the trip to last ten days. The wind was coming from behind and everything was easy. We set sail, wing on wing with the jib and genua on each side. Very comfortable making six to eight knots. Big swells coming in from behind making the sea confused and I got a bit seasick. I actually thought I would be because I’ve been stricken before in this kind of waves. It was not so bad, I managed to do all my duties – almost. Andes was kind helping me out in the galley with the wash up.

Fish market on the Indian Ocean

As we were passing the southern tip of Sri Lanka many fishing boats approached us. Either they wanted to sell fish or to get alcohol or cigarettes. They were quite funny but left with unfinished business as we had everything we needed and lacked cigarettes and alcoholic beverages to spare.

Alcohol or cigarettes?

Now, for the first time darkness started to lower on Jennifer. Then lighthouse on the most southern tip of Sri Lanka spread its light over the ocean and I was really looking forward to a clear sky with lots of stars.

A flash from the lighthouse at the most southern point of Sri Lanka

The moon rose around ten PM making the sea visible again. unfortunately the sky wasn’t clear in the first nights. On the contrary, every evening the first tree nights we had heavy rain, really heavy. But it was still quite hot. On the whole trip I never put on anything more than short trousers and a t-shirt. Very seldom I put on my shoes, and if, just if I had to work on deck. It’s the tropics and we were sailing on the 6th latitude close to the equator.

Rain cloud’s forming at the horizon