Conditions easing and might roll out a little more headsail if it stays like this for at least 30 minutes. Sea state also easing so looking like a comfortable night watch.

Position 13° 25.068′ N 60° 32.510′ E
COG 279T
SOG 6.9kt

Joana and Amenoz have anchored at Djibouti. Arbutus and Libert‚ are now in the IRTC heading ESE toward Djibouti with only 5-10 knots behind them. Bird O’Passage has 30 miles to run to Socotra and has NNE wind at 15 knots.

Position 13° 25.068′ N 60° 32.510′ E
COG 279T
SOG 6.9kt

Seems to be a cycle as the sun heats the African land mass east of here it reinforces the monsoon in the late afternoon. Sort of a huge sea breeze 500 miles offshore. Saw gusts of 30 knots around sunset but it has stabilised at around 20 knots now. Sea is a bit bigger than earlier but not huge. Feeling quite chipper after sleeping 3 h this afternoon.

Position 13° 24.028′ N 60° 39.801′ E
COG 278T
SOG 7.2kt

A full day of reaching in 12 to 16 knots, seeing a very consistent 7.5 knots of boat speed. We!ve Made 86 miles in the last 12 h so hould easily make 160 miles again for the 24 h. As we prepared for dinner the wind freshened to 24 knots in the gusts and we put in 3 reefs and rolled away two thirds of the headsail. Boat speed was still 7.5 knots. We are about to swap charts on the chartplotter, replacing the ?Asia and South China Sea? charts with ?Africa and the Red Sea?!

Position 13° 22.946′ N 60° 47.320′ E
COG 278T
SOG 7.3kt