Goodmorning everyone, from a place in the ocean off the coast of Africa,
underneath Madagascar somewhere!
I have just relieved Jasmine of her night watch, and it is now my turn from
6 untill 9. We do 3 hour shifts per turn and it seems to work well.
I am accompanied by sleeping bodies, a stunning rising sun, three types of
seabirds who are checking out the trawling lewers behind the boat. One is a
black /brown one, the other a black and white bellied one and the last type
is an albatross looking bird. When I get back in reception I will Google
what they are called. The black / brown one is landing on to the lewer each
morning, sits on the water for a while and then flies off again. The others
just scan it and fly over. These are not the only animals that accompany
us. We also had a moth for while, which scared the jeepers out of Scott as
it followed him everywhere. It must have hopped on board in Mossel Bay but
the wind has now caught him and I assume has laid it to rest in the ocean
somewhere? (I don?t think it had the capacity to fly all the way back to
Mossel Bay).
A pilot whale has chased a lewer so far and we have seen some pretty flying
fish with bright blue wings but apart from that the only thing we have seen
is a changing ocean state.
And boy did we see it change. Early on after leaving Mossel Bay, we
actually reached the 36/37 parallel and got landed in our first REAL storm!
It just appeared out of no where?. The wind picked up drastically and the
noises got louder and louder. I was lying in bed wondering what was
happening. When you lie in bed in our Starboard side, it is like lying
inside a plane. When you look past your feet you can imagine the lines of
chairs going forward, it is just that plane shape, with windows to your
right. In a calm state you just get rocked forwards and backwards and
generally it is a slow motion. The motors hum when they are on and you hear
the sail-drive spin in the water and the autopilot make its adjustments.
When you listen to it the noises together actually sound like words or
people singing! (no I am not going crazy, Paul confirmed this and Geoff has
also heard it!) We just call it the ocean transmitter. Like a radio it
transmits the secrets that ly deep in the ocean (haha!) . Anyway, these
noises got louder and louder, the noise of the water slapping against the
hull got extreme, when I looked through the window all I could see was a
mass of moving water and white foam. The gentle rocking motion went from a
strong lift up to a moment where there was nothing?? and nothing again?.
And the anticipation got just to the point of ?when is it going to
happen?????? when you could feel being pushed forward again slow but with
force?. You felt the drop and then wondered when you were going to stop
dropping?? followed by a plane crash sound?..
And then the whole thing would repeat itself again. At certain moments you
just felt like you where hanging in space, lifted of your bed for a few
noticeable seconds?.. Weird stuff!!
Geoff was on watch and I decided to go check it out. The boys were sleeping
in the saloon on the daybed. As I popped my head out of the hull, Paul was
already up investigating as well. I pulled myself up and onto the couch and
asked, ?whats happening? ?. Paul with his Cool, Calm and Collective manner,
just slowly walked back to the Port hull, rubbing his chin, and calmly
said?. ?Errrhmmm,, we are just going to reef some sails?..? like it was a
perfectly sunny day with not a breeze in the air?. Well, ok I said? He then
slowly went down his cabin to put on his jacket. Took his time, slowly came
back up and went out the door. Welll, those words were re-assuring but the
surroundings certainly weren?t!
Meanwhile the boys woke every now and again when the bow of the boat
pierced itself through a wave with a massive crash sound, to then wear the
wave allover herself, as it got thrown down by the big swell. They would
argue a little over the amount of bed space the other one had pinched and
then fall asleep again.
The front windows were looking as if you were looking into a washing
machine. The whole front was actually submersed into the wave.
How Jasmine slept through most of this I have NO IDEA! She has Scotts cabin
at the front and literally she went through the waves. The crashing noise
was incredibly loud?. But hey, better like that I guess!
Anyway,?.. we made it th rough. When we got up in the morning and looked
at the huge waves it looked rough but when you saw how the boat just hopped
over the top of the breaking waves I could then see how well she handled
it. Even though the noises were scary at night I have not felt scared
inside the boat. The boys even less so?.!
OK, what else?. We are now in beautiful sailing weather again. And the day
just consists of our 3 hour watches, some house keeping and our shared meal
at midday. We take turns in chosing what to eat and all have an input in
cooking it. This midday meal is a nice time as everyone is awake and it is
a real time of sharing.
The rest of the time it is just an open galley and we might share a coffee
together, depending who is awake. Talking about coffee?. As most of you
know Geoff is a fussy coffee drinker and refuses to drink instant coffee?.
We brought our Nespresso machine onboard and the nice coffees are rubbing
off on everyone. We now all enjoy a nice cuppa everyday and figured out
that we make enough power to use the machine, so the instant coffee has
been pushed to the back of the cupboard :). We fill out a log after every
watch. The boys do watches during the day and get to fill out the log as
well. They have to source information from different spots and are learning
how to read the weather and weather forecasts which we get via sat-phone.
We are learning more and more about the navigation system and when we see
ships the boys look them up and Scott even called one up via the VHF radio.
So much learning going on.
We still have plenty of food and I think our provisioning has served us
well so far. We even have plenty of fresh produce left. I have been making
vanilla muffins with Scott a few times. Nothing nicer then fresh baked
goods straight from the oven to be eaten in the fresh sea air.
Unfortunately no fish has stayed on the hook yet. So no Sushimi yet?..
The ocean is getting blue-er and Blue-er? and slowly the little boat on the
autopilot screen is moving itself to Mauritius. We produce plenty of water
with our watermaker. Enough for every one to have a nice hot shower every
day, and to do a load of washing in the machine every once a while. We are
cruising in absolute comfort. Just like being at home.
The swell has gone down heaps and we have a nice following sea which makes
sailing a pleasure. Yesterday we raced along doing mostly 8-10 knots with
our screecher. We find ourself singing out loud at times. The mood is very
good on board without any major disruption. The guitar gets practiced, and
there is a lot of reading and writing going on. Scott did start his
handwritten Journal but then decided to type a book on the Ipad. He written
the start so well and then one night pressed on ?select all, and delete??.
He cried his heart out because he lost the lot. It didn?t take long for him
to franticly get back on it though and type the whole thing again.
Unfortunately the first part was not as elaborately written as the first
time as he was a bit angry he had to do it again, it also sounded a bit
more negative?. But when he caught up with where he was his writing soon
improved to the previous standard. He spends every night adding to his
story and reads it out loud to everyone. I am amazed at his writing skills!
And so funny too, he has us all laughing! We now make sure we back his
writing up so he can?t lose it again. Paul is also writing a blog, and then
there is me?.. ;-)
Well, Paul will post this somehow via his sat-phone and he has posted
Scotts story too. I will sign off now. There are some sleeping bodies
getting up! I hope everyone is well over there , all our love!
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