Sunday 13th. May 2018 1700h. Azorean time
Position 38.38.695 N. 035.46.706 W
We are now eight days into our trip and within 228 nautical miles of Flores. We have put 1500 miles behind us, so far, so good. The weather is unchanged, mostly sunny, occasionally cloudy but no rain and the temperature has slowly dropped from 26 degrees in Bermuda to about 20 degrees now. The last few days we have had wind from all points but it is back in the South now, though blowing less than 10 knots and giving us waves under 2 meters high.
We have to put up with a heavy swell now and then, rolling the boat uncomfortably, but we’ve known worse.
Joost had another unusual encounter during his watch when an enormous whale sprung out of the water close to us. Did he get a photo? Unfortunately not, he was too late.
Say no more.
In my last blog I promised to return to the subject of how we spend our days aboard. We listen to a lot of music and we read. Each crew member wears earphones attached to his iPhone or computer so we don’t have to enjoy each other’s entertainment.
Peter is a musical omnivore; classical music one moment, Gerry Rafferty, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and Pink Floyd the next.
Joost can be found in his bunk most of the time he is not on watch. Here he plays computer games or watches Game of Thrones on his laptop.
When not horizontal he can be found enjoying his other pastime, cleaning. The windows are washed daily and he goes the rounds of the boats with a bucket of warm soapy water polishing salt off the railings.
A tidy young man.
Give me the rock, blues and boogie-woogie of Cuby and the Blizzards, Jan Akkerman and Rob Hoeke. A special place in my heart goes to a group that is something of a Dutch secret; The Bintangs. Together longer than those fossils of rock The Rolling Stones, they are the oldest rock group in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.
We sleep when it suits us. Our watches are three hours on, six off, moving forwards three hours every day and this has completely upset our biological clocks. We have entirely lost track of day and night so it’s every man for himself when it comes to breakfast and lunch.
Every day I make sure that we have a freshly baked loaf of bread from our galley oven.
Without our cook we would have no rhythm at all but daily without fail he sits us down between six and seven in the evening and serves us a warm evening meal; healthy, varied and above all very tasty.
Long live the Cook.
That is enough about what we are up to.
Today is Mother’s Day and our thoughts are with you and all of those who follow our exploits.
Greetings from Peter, Joost and from me,
Edzard
