31:06.97N 54:03.11W

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 |