24:25.0N 61:48.0W - Into day four ats ea

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Mon 11 May 2009 13:27
Again we are getting used to the life at sea. So far only the first day and
night was bad. Going close hauled in 20 kn of wind is not the kind of
sailing we love. Of course that is what we do every summer back home, and
for many years I thought that was what sailing was about. But in the
summers, it is only for a few hours at a time, and it isn't that fun then
either.

We are still close hauled. But the wind is down to 14 kn. The two last days
and nights were actually beautiful! As soon as the wind gets under 16 kn and
the sea is not too wind choppy any more, "Tatt av vinden" behaves more
ladylike and we forget all the banging in the seas the first night. The wind
direction is also a little better. We are going on a true course of 30 - 35
degrees at the moment. 40 deegrees to the apparent wind, and the Hydrovane
has been on duty the whole time since we set sails. Our meteorologist has
told us that some bad weather will occur in a few days north to us. Therfore
we steer as high to windward in the easterly wind as possible.

We had the first flying fish on board last night. Eva think she has seen a
portugese man o'war. And there is lots of floating sea weed. (Everyone who
knows their Donald Duck knows that the floating weed comes from the Sargasso
sea!) Else there is not much life to see. And only four or five ships.

All our Norwegian friends are sailing back now as well. But except from Las
Primas they started from St.Martin. And most of them before us. Las Primas
is joining the ARC Europe. We are getting daily updates from the other
boats, by e-mail. The whole fleet is shown on www.seiltur.no/atlanterhavet/.
Our foreign friends are staying or going to the Pacific.

After sleeping 9 hours uniterupted every night in the Caribbean it takes
some time to get acostumed to the night waches, but somehow it feels easier
this time. We are having a good time for the moment. We enjoy it. We feel
more confident and better adapted to the sea than before. But becaause of
all the uncertainties of this route, we are also more eager to make it
"fast". The boat is not very fast, but it got a lot better after I scraped
the bottom. It took several dives with the snorkeling gear, but it also was
kind of pleasure lying under the boat and see that it got cleaner by every
stroke my hand made.

So far we have done 400 nm in three days. Better than we used to do on the
crossing from the Canaries.

Many of our frinds have sent us greetings. We appreciate that very much.
Thank you all of you!

We try to update the position every day by 1200 UTC and we shall give a
report on life on board from time to time, when the weather is ok.