Around 2300 last night, the wind calmed to about 20 knots. Within a couple of hours, seas were a little better, but by a little we mean that conditions have gone from “absolutely miserable” to “miserable”. We were not consistently pounding as hard into the waves, but were still periodically getting pelted by some very hard waves. Speeds were holding steady in low 5’s. Sigh.

By noon, the winds had picked back up to 25 and the seas continued to get worse and worse, going right back to “absolutely miserable” again. Speeds worsened to the high 3’s/low 4’s at 1600 RPM.

Around 1630 (4:30 pm), we turned toward land. The weather charts show winds to be stronger closer to shore, so we were braced for it to get even worse. Much to our surprise, the winds calmed down. The ride slowly improved, going to “really uncomfortable”, then to “uncomfortable”, then to “not too bad”. As the ride improved, so did the speed, picking up to the mid to high 5’s. Also, as we get closer to shore, there is less fetch (fetch means wave build up), so we aren’t bashing as hard or taking as much water over the bow anymore. We wonder if we would have had a better ride had we hugged the shore the whole time. There is no way to ever really know. By 2000, we could see the lights of the shoreline.

The engine starting battery alternator belt is still disintegrating. The tooth pieces of the belt are falling off, there is belt dust everywhere, and the smell is strong. We are debating stopping the main engine and cutting the belt, and let it just run off one belt.

The last few days the sunset has looked more like a full moon setting than the sun. It is very hazy along the shore, and the haze dims the brightness of the sun as it nears the horizon. It is really kind of weird looking.

Oh, and we have set a new record for longest passage completed with just the two of us. Male to Salalah was 9.5 days, and we are now at 10 days. Our fuel burn turned out to be twice what we anticipated, but of course, we weren’t anticipating having to run at full throttle the whole way.

We have been reflecting on the fact that our last three passages have all been desperate, flat out runs. To the Maldives, we wanted to arrive a day ahead of schedule to check in, so we ran hard for the last half of the passage. To Oman, we were trying to outrun a storm, so we ran hard for the first half of the passage. To Egypt, we needed to catch a flight home, so we ran harder than anticipated on the last 2/3 of the passage, trying to get in a day and a half ahead of schedule. We had always planned on running hard the first portion of the trip, wanting to get through pirate alley ASAP. So, the entire 10.5 day trip has been a hard run. We are impressed that Kosmos is doing well under all the pressure of being run so hard, so long, and so often. [103]