Noon position report April 28th, 2006, at 1200             
 
24 hour distance:  146 nm
Average speed:    6.1 knots
Under sail:           24 hrs
 
Other non-logbook data
 
Position:        S 038 dgrs 30 mnts
                     E 097 dgrs 23 mnts
Wind:              NW 11-16 knots
Wave height:   1.25- 2.5 m
COG:              75 dgrs
SOG:              5.8 knots
LOG:               5.9 knots
Air pressure:    1024 mb
Temperature:   18 dgrs C
Water temp.:    14 dgrs C
Depth:             Abt.4,000 m
Weather:         Scattered clouds, sunny

Lunch: Swedish Falun sausage stuffed with pickled cucumbers and baked in oven, with mashed potatoes
Dinner: Entrecôte sautée in Pinotage wine, with rice

From the logbook:
27/4
1615 Chip log brok down, measurements finished
1800 Tightened main earings
2000 Set up fore top shroud
28/4
0050 Main staysail and mizzen staysail set
0120 Main top staysail set
0500 Put up chafing protections fore top backstays. Repaired main top shifting backstays.
 
Comments:
We have have now made a little more than half the distance between Île St. Paul and Fremantle, and are consequently approaching Australia more and more. We have a little less than 900 nm left and have also seen signs that we are approaching a new continent. Today some small birds were spotted but they preferred not to land on board. The big seabirds also look different. To an amatuer eye the seabirds out here on the Indian Ocean all seem to have the same shape and differ in colour and size only. They fly the same way, almost touching the wave crests, utilizing the winds above the swell and only make a wing-beat occasionally. So now we have seen something new. The middle-sized birds are a bit more slender and of a lighter grey colour as compared to what we have seen so far.
 
The sea beneath us is getting deeper. With the sea looking the same from day to day, it is more entertaining imagining what the bottom of it looks like, using the depth markings on the chart. And it is really a roller coaster landscape down there. This part of the ocean bed is among those least explored on earth. One may wonder how well preserved the hulls are of the ships that have foundered here, thousands of metres down. An appropriate task for the explorers of tomorrow!