12:57.50N 36:38.8W

And now, for something completely different…

Seeing as though we had passed the trip’s halfway mark, we decided to celebrate with a special meal. Though the four Portuguese were familiar with one of their country’s delicacies, Boyan had never heard of Arroz de Linguas de Bacalhau before the trip. Manuel Sr. assured him that, though many outside of Portugal may have mixed feelings (to say the least) about the idea of eating cod fish tongues, it is a delicious dish that is highly regarded in his country. Furthermore, this dish was the first that sprang up to mind when they thought of special meals for our trip. These linguas were bought over 2 months ago in a specialist Bacalhau shop in Lisbon’s Rua do Arsenal -- well known by cooks from every visiting commercial ship.  It is important to mention that, after overcoming the first moment of hesitation, Boyan became a big fan of this dish. Plans for Kyiv’s first Bacalhau restaurant will start soon! If you want to taste something really different, we included the recipe in the next blog entry.

Though high quality food has come at a constant rate during the trip, the same cannot be said of the wind. Slowly but surely, however, weak winds are becoming the exception rather than the expectation. Our arbitrary milewaves (in the absence of milestones) are quickly disappearing behind the transom and the trade winds are reliably pushing us to the West.

This progress has seen the introduction of our sixth team mate. He was behind the camera when yesterday’s photo was taken and, as usual, was driving the boat without complaints. Ruminating a pair of Amps from time to time, looking to the compass every three or four seconds and, since yesterday, he is also taking into account the position of the windvane and keeping a constant angle with the wind. The incoherence often found between the two pieces of information, compass and wind direction, make him a little bit angry (who wouldn't?), but he keeps his protests to a series of beeps. In the beginning, these beeps caused concern among the senior crew members, but are now totally ignored, in the knowledge that averaging for a little longer will surely solve the problem.

All these qualities, along with his modest behaviour, make us proud to introduce to you the “Piloto Automático” (Auto Pilot).  In the absence of a more than deserved medal for relevant services, we propose to give him the recognition of being referred to as “HE”, instead of the inglorious “it” under which he was born in the aseptic coldness of a (possibly Chinese) factory.

Unfortunately, he was not in the mood to celebrate by eating Arroz de Linguas de Bacalhau. Instead, he stuck to his usual diet of electricity – which was alright with us!

Until next time,

The Enigma Crew

PS: For today, 7^th December, happy birthday to Maria Antónia (Manuel’s Mother) from the Enigma crew