Albatrosses and whales

10 April 2013

Another report by Alice Deinum-Teekman:
“It is 8 AM, time for breakfast, my watch is finished and it was a quiet morning with a beautiful sunrise. We are motor-sailing because there is almost no wind. The sea is calm and there is almost no swell. We have now sailed 1146,80 miles from Santos and we have about 1000 miles to go to Tristan da Cunha. It depends on the weather if we will be able to go ashore there, but we are looking forward to at least see the island. This morning we saw two big albatrosses, a light coloured one and also a dark version. The dark one is the Sooty albatross that breeds on Tristan da Cunha; they have a wingspan up to 203 cm. 
Yesterday we could sail so we set every sail that we have. Later in the day we had to turn on the engine to stay on track so it was a lot of work to take down all the sails. After that it was time to sort out the vegetables, fruits and potatoes. We have to take out the rotten ones. After that we cleaned the wooden boat and the whole deck so everything looked squeaky clean again.
After that I was reading and all of a sudden there is a message through the intercom: Whales! I was too late to spot them but I trust we will see more whales in the coming days. We enjoy the space around us and the starry skies during the night.”