32’21.9S 044’08.1W course 203′ speed 7,3kn
Not last night, but the night before we had the most epic colors for our sunset so far! As our picture of the day competition is between 18:00 and 18:00 the next day, some of the pictures come with a small delay, but still win. But these pictures really need the full story was well! After dinner, as the watches not on watch were disappearing to bed, without setting foot outside, because we all thought it was still raining (…) the sun started to set in the most spectacular way. The three musketeer (Floris, Soete and Jasmijn) were doing the dishes, until one of them said that the colors in the hallway were strange… they looked orange. And as they went outside, they spotted the watch of Brian, Beverly, Joel and Daniel on the aft just jumping up and down because of the beauty and sheer scale of the color range in the sunset of that evening!
Pictures show but half of the story. One side was orange, pink turning purple, while looking the other way the skies turned a deep blue or purple, with intensity! It was still very windy at that time. We were speeding along with 7 knots under reefed mizzen, forestay sail and second jib, showers had just dissipated, leaving a wet sky that broke the last sun rays into this amazing palet of colors! Within minutes the sun was gone and so were the colors, luckily these pictures remain.
During the past 24 hours we have had one or two small showers around, but mostly we have been dry. The wind slowly decreased, to finally about two hours ago, we have had to start the engine, as there is no more wind to fill the sails, but we still have some swell running to shake our sails.
During the day, sailing was amazing. On a close reach, sails sheeted out just a bit more, fully set mainsail, we were humming along so beautifully. Everybody was outside on deck enjoying the sunshine, after a few days of rain. Shorts were back on, t shirts and flipflops ruled and sunscreen was quickly applied again, even though we had already packed all of our summer things away. Two days ago it seemed like the sun would not return, it was so bleek! But then today was prove that the South can surprise you.
We are officially in the Horse Latitudes. The Latitudes where in desperation to hang on to their water supplies, ships in the old days, were said to have put their horses over the side, because they were becalmed in these latitudes, waiting for wind. Very happily we have started the engine, we have no horses on board, but also, we would rather not get stuck here.
Our Christamas Pudding is in the make. The fridge smells of Christmas with the beer, rum and cinnamon soaking into the ingredients. Tomorrow the pudding will be boiled and then it will be fed spoons of rum every day, until Christmas. Just 13 more days, but who is counting..
We have about 1300 miles left to sail to the Falkland Islands. Today we will be under engine all day, or so it looks on the forecast. After that, winds should return form the North East and increase to a strong wind again within two days. Lets see how many miles we can make with the left side of the High pressure area, before we run into a low pressure area again!
All is well on board,
Jet
