Finally Off to Chagos

 

Finally after sitting in the anchorage in Gan for 6 days past our check out the weather gods are ready to let us start the passage to Chagos. The weather has been overcast, very rainy and occasionally windy. The view above is the reef sitting 25 feet of our stern when the winds come from the SW. It is an ugly reef that took out the rudders on an Outremer catamaran a few week ago. You might ask why are we anchored so close to the reef? I ask myself that question at least twice a day. In front of us are four yellow resort boats on moorings. When the wind goes NW I have to bring in about10 feet of anchor chain to avoid hitting the closest one. You might also ask why don't we anchor somewhere better? This is as good as it gets here.

The conflict between the weather forecast models has continued for most of the week. The GFS model ended up being the most long term predictive and the most accurate here. The predicted low made its closest approach to us in Gan yesterday daytime. Really odd to get the worst weather in the daytime. It usually shows up at 3am. The wind speeds predicted by GFS were pretty accurate and the directions varied 20 - 40*. The low will travel toward Chagos and then west into the Indian Ocean. By the time we get to Chagos in two or three days, its effects should be gone.

Paul.