24 hours at sea
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Wed 3 Oct 2012 01:28
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So we have been sailing non stop since
Sunday, and we are getting in to some routines. What do they look like? How
do we manage to keep watch 24 hours AND feed the children with food and
variation.
We are all living in a space ship, today we saw the
first boat in over 30 hours. The ocean i big, huge, horizons all around
us.
Erika asked how many horizons there are. Soon
thereafter we had a huge rainbow that looked like a real bridge and soon after
that another rainbow appeared above it.
But let's start at 0800, Ellinor wakes me up and
she goes to bed. I make breakfast for me and the children.
Usually they come out one at the time leaving the
first one to talk without interuption. It is a great moment, sitting in the
cockpit with the low morning sun, having all the time in the world.
When breakfast is finished, I clean up and that
takes time in a rocking boat. As soon as you let something go, it
goes...
The sinks and the oven are your only friends. The
sink because everything stays there and the oven beacuse its the only thing that
remains flat, it is counterrocking on its own.
After that Erika and I had school this morning and
then there is the usual watch routine that goes the same for Ellinor and me.
Check the horizon every 20 minute. Logg position, weather, speed etc every hour.
Check power, bildge, and technical matters every fourth hour. Inspection of rigg
etc once a day.
About 11 am I start making lunch and by 12 Ellinor
shows up and we eat together. I go to sleep after that.
Ellinor is on watch and does some repair work
etc.
1600 It's my watch, but usually Im up before
preparing dinner. We check weather forecast, discuss sailing tactics
etc.
After dinner I clean up, read emails, answer. The
children are playing by themselfes or we play a game together.
20.00 I'm done putting the children to bed, a
routine that is getting more and more complicated.
Ellinor goes on watch and ususally there is
Andreas who want's to sit with her for a while. I try to tell him that he is
supposed to sleep but he counteracts with sea sickness, well he has not been
seasick since we left Cascais, but who can tell him he is not?
I go to bed.
00.00 I'm taking my watch and Ellinor goes to bed.
If our sailing tactics work it is usually very relaxing, you can read
a book for hours or as now I'm typing the blogg.
04.00 Ellinor takes her watch and I can go to bed,
usually very tyred.
0800 Ellinor wakes me up...
You might ask if I'm the only one in the kitchen at
sea, the answer is yes. To work down below there is a big sea sickness factor,
and I have no problem with that. Ellinor can do evrything above the
waterline.
Right now it is 2:21 am Wensday morning, it is not
dark, the moon is very intense. There is the sound of the ocean, the wind
generator with it's buzz, the sails that slam now and then when a bigger wave
puts us out of course. The autopilot is working contstantly being actually the
third mate always on watch. There is light from the instruments and from the
saloon comes red light (red light does not destroy your night vision). We are
about 70nM from Porto Santo, the smaller island in The Madeira archipellago. If
everything works our way we should be there at about 4 pm this afternoon. Then
we will get afull nights sleep...
By the way, water temperature is 27 degrees and it
is 23 degrees and it is night.
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