9:15 p.m. (3:45 p.m. UTC) Monday, March 29, 2010 6 02 N, 80 14 E, Galle, Sri Lanka

Yet more proof that boats come in all shapes and sizes An outrigger for stability lashed to a thin hull, and a superstructure made of tree branches. My favorite part is the comfortable seat amidship!

We’re off again tomorrow, probably later in the day, March 30, 2010, Sri Lankan time, heading for Uligan, in the Maldives, from Galle, in Sri Lanka. It’s just under 500 hundred miles, but if there is little wind, it may take us five days or more.

We’ve spent a good amount of our time here getting the boat back in order after a passage from Malaysia that had provided good wind, but also some equipment challenges.

But now, the alternator bracket is repaired (though it took a day and a half removing a broken bolt, and our solution, finally, was to cut away the back side of the timing plate cover to get at it), the new (well, used, actually) damper plate is installed, and a leak in the exhaust manifold has been repaired. Also, we repaired a transmission problem with the VHF radio.

We could go on for a page and a half regarding each of these repairs, but we’ll spare you!

We did get to play around a bit. We became good friends with a Navy officer, who invited us to his house for dinner and drinks a couple of times. And we spent a day touring the old fort, which was quite nice as well.

We’ll try to put together a better description of our impressions of this place when we have some time out at sea.

Let’s hope for a trouble-free passage!

From the “it could be worse department,” we were reading another boat’s blog last night, and the author described how, as they traveled toward Oman, all their electronics failed, including autopilot, and then the head/toilet gave up the ghost, and the skipper spent two days wrestling with poopy hoses and spilling sea water in a rolly sea. So it could be worse!

The Maldives are supposed to be beautiful. We’ll stop for only a few days, unless the winds are good, and then we might not even stop at all, to make good time toward the Red Sea. We’ll see what the weather has in store for us.

Much love and affection from us both!

Paul and Sima