37’21.8N 012’27,4W course 171′ speed 4,3
They don’t come easy nor do they come cheap, the miles of the last 24 hours. Head winds and a moderate to rough sea state, with short waves on quick intervals made it hard to get our speed above the 4,5 knots. In the last 6 hours we should have had most of the stronger winds, and so now we are waiting and hoping for the sea state to calm down quickly as well. The wind has turned West, but the waves are still coming from the South and South West.
At sunset we could see the new slither of the moon, and so we are hopeful that in the coming days our night may not be as dark as they are right now. With drizzly showers around, all the stars are blocked from view. The ocean has the same color as the sky and the only crests of the waves show the movement around us. They light up with luminescent algae in them, which looks a lot like a glow in the dark effect. Inspired by this, Soete and I debated dowsing our wind indicators in luminescent paint for the next leg, so we can see where the wind is coming from now that it is turning West.
Piet, pieternell, pieterbelle or just our female Chaffinch is still on board. This morning she made her way out to the door, sat there patiently waiting for one of us to go downstairs and spot her, so we could open the door for her. She then proceeded, not just to eat, but to demolish a whole breakfast muffin, that was twice the size of the little bird! By end of the afternoon she was done with the wind trying to blow her off the ship, she chirped really loudly at me and half an hour later as I went downstairs to make dinner, she was already perched on a bookshelf. Strangely enough I was kind of relieved to see her inside, because the winds outside where said to increase a lot during the night. And although she does not seem to have the friendliest disposition, we are all getting a little too attached to the bird..
And so the night has come, but the predicted strong winds have not come. No complaint from my side! We now have about 20 knots of wind, still helping us along, and we guess that around 25 knots would have been the strongest it got. Its still enough to throw up quite the sea state, so we are happy not so see what 30 knots would have done. Today during the day we are likely to lose the wind completely and will be covered and followed by a high pressure area. So most likely some sunny days ahead!
Soete has us back at 5,9 and even 6 knots now, so that is starting to look up for us!
For those trying to sleep, it is like being in a waterbed and someone is shaking it violently, or so I would imagine it to be. Sometimes the bed seems to move from beneath you, and other times you just role from one side to the next. But you dont notice the wind, so all is calm, quiet, nice and warm.. But then your bed seems to jolt and roll like its possessed. We’ll catch up to that sleep in the next few days, when the wind is completely gone.
All is but well on board,
Jet
