This crossing is different

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Sat 16 May 2009 13:15
All crossings are probably different. To us this is very much different from
the crossing we did over to the Caribbean in November-December. Now we are a
little more than a week out at sea. The night is bright with stars. Stella
polaris is higher on the sky each day. Luckily it is some time before it
reaches our homely 60 degrees above the horizon. The moon is still half, and
came up a couple of hours ago. But the air feels cold. Well, I just checked
the thermometer, and the truth is that it is 21 degrees C. For a Nordic
summer that would be fantastic in the middle of the night. But we are
obviously corrupted by the tropics!

At this time "Ohana" is probably in the Marquesas. I envy them. And
"Seawalk" is in Florida. That's a different life. "Aphrodite" is hauled out
in Trinidad where the people have left her for the summer. In the autumn
they will be back. We'll be back at work at the time.

The first five days of this crossing were sailed close hauled. But only the
first day was realy unpleasent. The following days the winds were not so
strong, just so that we made amble progress. Then our weather forcaster told
us that things were about to change. A depression was expected to develope
just in our way. Concequently, the last two days we have been sailing to
avoid it. So far we have been lucky. But it has parked itself somwhere NE to
us, and probably we shall have to sail through the cold front from the back
side. Stationary depressions are new to us. Back home we are used to that
they move pretty fast over the British isles and passes over southern Norway
a day or so later. Sailing through a depression there always means fronting
it from E, going W or SW and letting it pass over us, the mast and the
sails. (Or we stay in harbour til it has passed.) Here we shall try a
different approach. Going E. S of the center of the depression. Then turning
NE and sailing on the winds on the E side. Hoping that the depression will
last and stay in place so we can make good progress to the Azores!

We still have about 1400 nM to sail to the Azores. Much can happen. Only one
third of the crossing is behind us. But life on board is good. Newly baked
bread. Still fresh fruit. The watermaker is working fine, and we can shower
every day. The captain has enough of his goodies (nuts and raisins). The
crew has her carrots. Sometimes we exchange some. We have regular meals. The
sun is shining every day. The nightws have been beautiful. We sailed out in
full moon. (Some showers of course...) And we still have three more months
before we return home. Life is good.