Birthday cake with a bit of rain

Birthday cake with a bit of rain
Sams birthday was a variable wind and rain
birthday. Starting off with a fair and increasing breeze, making the little
birthday flags flap and clapper very loudly, then decreasing, the sun came out
for a short but heartwarming spell, then turning South West, turning West,
turning North West. 2 gibes and 2 birthday beers later we are now on a portside
tack doing 6,5 knots, 70 degrees over the ground..

Today we had a
reminder of having already traveled almost 5000 miles and that we have been
underway in all sorts of weather for 28 days now.. as one of the shackles of the
peak halyard got loose due to friction and movement. We had to lower the
mainsail and get Gijs up in the mast to do get the shackle back in and check the
others. Now imagine a boat rocking and rolling on the ocean, mainsail down, so
less pressure on the ship, so more movement.. and then transfer that movement up
in our mast and Gijs in a little bosuns chair. But an hour later the mainsail
was back up again and we dug into the second birthdaycake, one with cherries and
chocolate.. the chocolate had settled all the way on the bottom though.. so we
had to finish it all..

The Europa has gone around the Horn, for us it is
still 424 miles away. It is strange to think that in a few days we might
actually get to the famous Horn, the point we have been aiming for, for over 4
weeks now. 5000 miles will have led us to this one place that we are still
closing in on with more then 6 knots per hour…

Although it was not cold
during this night, getting wet and the grey does make you cold at the end of the
watch. We have heard reports that the temperature on the Falkland Islands has
been up to 23 degrees!! A prospect that will make setting a new goal, after Cape
Horn, very easy.

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