Jocara Newsletter
Jan 1, 2005

Well, we were praying for more wind, and I guess our gods are both 
powerful and took us seriously, because we got some serious wind!  
Unfortunately, most of it has been on the nose so we've been beating into 
high seas and winds gusting up to 39 knots for the past 6 days.  The seas 
today sometimes reached over 6m high.  We've broken the main halyard, 
Genoa halyard, starboard railing, port Genoa winch, oven gimbals, 
generator, windscoop, oh, lots of other small stuff.  The boat is a mess 
below, with a mix of food, papers, soft furnishings and books strewn about 
where things have crashed out of cupboards and off shelves.  We are in no 
state to clean any of it up; indeed, it's a battle even to cook a bowl of 
pasta.  Nevertheless, all on board are in good spirits and healthy!  Well, 
we have had a couple of sense-of-humour failure moments, but nothing too 
serious.  On the plus side, we've been visited by porpoising dolphins and 
careening boobies, diving into the waves and skimming the surface catching 
flying fish.  We caught a good-sized Dorado, but have so far been unable 
to cook it!  Caroline's parents have had to celebrate New Year on their 
own, waiting for us to arrive in Zanzibar.  We are now at 7 deg. 08.1'S, 
40 deg. 05.2'E, just 75 n.m. from Zanzibar and hoping to reach anchorage 
midday tomorrow.  So have a great New Year everybody, and check out our 
New Year Card to be posted on the Jocara website at http://www.jocara.net 
when our good friend Mandar receives our update CD mailed from Mayotte.

P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net for 
updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters.  Anyone can 
join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg 
with the subject line 'subscribe jocara newsletter' or 'unsubscribe Jocara 
newsletter' as appropriate.