Tropical sailing conditions

12 February 2016

Update by Arjen Wapenaar:
“Yesterday, Wednesday, started as a cloudy day. Luckily the sun came out slowly. In the meantime at 14 hours we changed the ships time to an hour earlier. Shortly after that the alarm went off. Man over board! Not for real, but an excercise. A lifebelt, a fender and a smokepot drifted in the sea. Immediately there was action on board: sails went down and the course was changed. Within 5 minutes the ‘victim’ was retrieved and on board again. The excercise was evaluated as successful. And the smokepot? Well, the expiration date was this month… By now a new one is hanging at the handrail.
With hoisting the sails again we changed course to 230 degrees, right on target for the south side of Martinique. The days before we headed northwest and off course, to keep up speed and to prevent a gybe. Now we slowly approach our target –less then 300 miles to go– and you feel some desire for seeing land again, after 13 days at sea. Although life on board is very good. The weather is great, the ‘Oosterschelde’ listens well to her rudder and the hot sun is high in the sky. The thermometer rose above 30 degrees and everywhere you smell the suntan oil. A bit of rain last night felt really refreshing; inside the ship and the cabins the air is hot and sweaty.
We did not catch a lot of fish: yesterday 1 Mahi-mahi. Today we spotted a frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) and again a booby, this time a Masked booby (Sula dactylatra).”