A voyage of stop and go

31-12 00:50 board time

Last nights sailing was amazing. Unexpectedly, truly, spectacularly, Amazing! No waves, light breeze and speeding along with 7 knots straight for our goal under a star lit sky! We heard splashing and breathing of dolphins just next to the ship, but we could not see them. We knew we were making our way past the Falkland Islands, but could not see them, but for one light. On a close reach there were no sails flapping, no sound to be heard on the deck, except for the water rushing past the hull. The weather report had predicted the light winds, but so far, most light winds turned out to be no wind. And then there was last night, what a difference. Under the lee of the island we were making our way North East with ease. Until the morning came… the wind died out just as we handed over the watch to Krista and Will, they struggled to keep the sails full, but were able to until the wind returned from the North and we had to tack. The rest of the day we enjoyed a light head wind and tacked again in the afternoon.

Again at watch hand-over at 18:00, just after dinner, the wind started to decrease again leaving the 20-00 watch without a breeze and having to lower the mainsail due to a northerly wave that started running around 21:00h. I could hear the watch laughing and joking around, and heard the despair in their in their voices as they tried to keep their spirits high! Just 85 miles to go.. and no wind. The wind returned and in no time the main sail was back up again! The wind had turned and so we tacked again and are now on our way North, 6 knots averaging with a nasty little wave stopping us dead in our track every now and then.. The wind is expected to increase a little more during the night.. but…. we only have 11 more hours, before the wind is forecasted to die out again.. Making it an average of 7 knots we have to maintain to be able to get to the 50′ South before we get becalmed again!

8 knots!
sailing at 8 knots

This race to get there is hard, but also nice. It keeps us focused to the last mile of this amazing voyage.

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