When the North Wind blows

42’01.2S 049’11.0W course 236′ 6,1kn

An hour or so before lunch, we ended picking up a breeze again, this time from the North! The morning watch had already set mizzen, staysail and big jib. So all that was left to us was getting the mainsail up (turn off the engine) and then of course, the topsail! The mainsail was set with just the watch and one or two extra hands, but for the topsail we waited until more people were awake around lunch, to set the sail. Once set, we were heading almost in the right direction with 5,5 knots and loving it.
During the day, the wind had gradually backed and we were able to sail straight for the Falkland Islands on a point of sail somewhere between beam reach and broad reach. So coming slightly from behind, or almost from the side.. When I went off watch we were doing 215′ on the compass and 211′ over ground, with 6,5 to 7 knots.. a few hours later… we have found a bit of current once again.. we are doing 215′ on the compass and 230′ over the ground… and speeds are down, although the propeller sounds the same.. Annoying and not what we need. We need 8,5 knots in the right direction, right no

Winds should increase more during the morning, to a point where topsail is down, and possibly we are thinking of reeving again. Maybe we will be able to get rid of this bit of current by then..

During the day we kept busy with some celestial navigation, some comparing of pictures of the stars we took during the night.. I made a crazy little timelaps of the sunrise, others were even able to make beautiful pictures of the stars and sunrise. The picture that won our picture of the day though, was Riva steering, by Andrew. Sails were still down, but she looks so peacefull and happy.

As we had one of our possibly last calm days at sea, we went all out with dinner and made Hamburgers and buns. For the next days I suspect we will be moving a lot more on waves and wind and so I have saved the pasta meals and a special Zuurkool meal for the next days to come. We are already starting to roll a little on waves, so somewhere North of us, the wind has already started to increase!

All is well on board, jet