26’01.2S 004’18.0E course 340′ speed 6,9 kn
It has been a very busy Monday! Just before lunch we had planned a introduction to proper nouns and usage of nautical words on board.. but as the wind was turning a lot and the wave direction became more and more annoying.. we gybed instead of doing the introduction. Our first real gybe and really our first real sail handling besides setting the sails. We talked through the whole plan first, then got everybody in their places, and with only minor errors the gybe was successful and controlled.

Picture of the day door Stella!
After the gybe we did a fire drill and then it was time for lunch. With some time on our hands we did some small chores, got our beef curry stewing (and the chickpea, coconut and coriannder stew) nice and early and as people started appearing for dinner, I announced that it was time for another workout. The wind had been slowly decreasing and in the “vale” steering was hard and the sails started flogging.. so we needed more canvas and more speed. We started to shake the reef from the mainsail and soon our speed was up and the movement of the ship slowed down.
Hippo and Hippa helped me out to interpret the weather report and de route we needed to take. Winds are expected to decrease gradually during the next 4 days, until they will completely die out on the 13th of April. Our course is hard to steer completely downwind so our gybes have big angles. Hippo and Hippa seem to agree, after considerable deliberation, that it will soon be time for some topsail sailing..
Staring at the GPS I can see we have 6450 miles to go to our waypoint at the Netherlands. Half a knot difference towards the goal results in a difference of almost 3 days on our ETA. Its crazy to think that our first 1000 miles will soon have been sailed, and it feels like we have just gotten started.
No new flue victims have come forward.. we seem to have conquered it. But lets keep vigilant, it has only been 1 day without new symptoms.
All is well on board, Jet