Wednesday 9th April

We woke to another peaceful days sailing on an almost flat calm sea with a cloudless sky, hot sun and the only wind provided by the ships passage at twenty one knots. We are still heading due west and it is remarkable that on such a huge open sea we are surrounded by so many other vessels of all shapes and sizes. Heading both in our direction and Eastwards, but when you think about the accuracy of modern satellite navigation aids used to automatically steer these ships along the most direct and therefore economical route I suppose it is no surprise to see them all following a similar narrow corridor and passing at a relatively high closing speed of close to fifty miles per hour, or overtaking an inch at a time like two HGVs on a dual carriageway, mile after mile but at achingly slower speeds. We were passing one ship half a mile off our starboard beam when we went up to lunch and when we finished some 45 minutes later we were only half a length ahead. We watched several schools of dolphins as we passed by and every now and then we spotted large fish leaping out of the sea as if being chased by some predator, well it was either that or they were showing off. Towards the end of the evening we saw the lights of the coast of Sri Lanka on our starboard bow, two days to cross the Bay of Bengal. The Far East already seems so far away, why does coming home always seem so fast when it’s all uphill?