Reunion Outbound Day 1

Hi everyone,
We are currently in position 22 35S 53 25E sailing at 5.5 knots on a course of 230M. The wind is 10-12 knots from the E with a low sea and a 1m E swell. We are under single-furled yankee and full main. Our day's run was 152nm and we have 1234nm of this 140nm passage to go.

Yesterday afternoon the wind gradually went around to the E as we cleared the island. It held in at around 15 knots all night. The only variation was during two small squalls which went through with 20 knots of wind and light rain. Apart from the squall clouds we had a very nice half-moonlit night until around midnight and then a starlit night thereafter. For most of the night we had a single-reefed main and double-furled yankee.

This morning the wind has gradually weakened. We've been gradually heading more south to keep our apparent wind up. It looks like we're going to have a couple of days of light winds. Hopefully the wind won't fail completely.

There are at least six other yachts on passage from Reunion to either Richards Bay or Durban. They are all ahead of us but two additional boats are due to depart Reunion soon so we'll have boats behind us for a while too. The boats up ahead are reporting the currents they're experiencing which is helpful for us to avoid the worst of the adverse currents. There are some strong currents on this passage, and not only the Agulhas currrent.