Life on Siri Ros is very quiet today, we are all sleeping and taking it easy slowly moving south under a storm jib.  We had very little sleep last night as the wind increased with gusts up to 40 kn.  Genevieve and Carl were on watch and the storm jib was deployed.  However, when they furl the Genoa it went wrong and the sheets got all tangled up in the furling gear.   In pajamas, wet weather gear and life jackets all man on deck battled on foredeck taking down the Genoa and secured the large non cooperative sail with rope in the middle of the night.  We untangled the ropes and are waiting for an opportunity when the wind has calmed down to redeploy the sail. This is the reason for lazing around today.

There are a number of low pressure systems in the Atlantic; one is just sitting here where we are.  We must pass south of a low pressure to get the easterly winds that we require for sailing to Europe.  We have weather routing as well as weather files that we study very carefully for the best approach. “Commanders Weather” refers to the systems as “very complex”, I guess the weather is not behaving as to be expected and the low pressure we are experiencing is much further south than normal.   The projection is that this low will move in a NE direction during the next couple of days and then disperse and this will then allow us to continue our journey eastwards. There is an option to motor across the low, but the motion against the wind and waves are very unpleasant and we would consume a large portion of our precious diesel so we opted for the easy option – wait.

Genevieve and Carl were on gully duty yesterday and created some very nice meals.  We had a nice egg salad with all sorts of stuff added in including masses of garlic. It’s just as well as we are out here as we all must stink terribly.

Today Giancarlo and Anton provided the lunch with a bit of help from Annya, a massive sandwich with bacon, avocado, tomatoes, eggs, plastic cheese (the pre-packed square stuff) and lashings of mayonnaise (Stephen you should have been here),

Natures larder has not been very cooperative, the fishing line and is still trailing behind with a very tired looking lure at the end with the occasional seaweed wrapped around the line, but no tasty Dorado or Mahi-Mahi. Giancarlo is still studying the book on “how to fish” in Italian. He bought some bits and pieces in a fishing tackle shop in Bermuda and received a lot of advice on how to catch “the big one”; the gear is still in the shopping bag.

To make this a very adventurous trip, a tornado (water spout) came dancing towards us this morning, luckily it dispersed before it had a chance to make any damage to the boat.

The weather is otherwise rather sunny, but cold; long johns and warm socks are part of the attire.

The weather and seas have calmed down and we are once again sailing with the Genoa and full sails, life is more or less back to “normal”.

We are all well.

Liz – skipper Siri Ros

Missing you all like mad and a little bit like crazy too :), but enjoying my sea legs (finally) and this wonderful journey with new friends.  The Atlantic is a million shades of blue, night watch brings the Milky Way swirling overhead, a few dolphins visit from time to time, and life is quite good.  Tonight looks to be a beautiful sunset.  From my harness and comfy socks, much love, Annya

AH, what at a wonderful ocean!  Clouds rising up like a mad man, to open a tap of the shower, just the time to wash your nose and then they close it, to let you be dried by the wind; waves  riding as crazy horses form any direction and splashing on board jut to wish us good morning; sun playing with the clouds to say “yes or not” to our photo cameras; dolphins jetting around for a few second juts to see who are these damm intruders; a indifferent birds flying over  and going nowhere. And eventually, when we are fed up of all this stuff, a great  rainbow rises behind us to support the wishes we made in the night at the shooting stars.

But still some is missing

See you next.

Giancarlo

Rain showers come and go as soon as they appeared and the wind can change course in an instant. During the day we have rainbows and dolphins gracing the dark blue abyss, and during the night phosphors blink in the wake of the boat while we wait for the Milky Way to rise. All is well, have a nice spring back home. /Carl-Anton

Carl-Anton