Little wind

4 March 2020

As we said in our last post, we try to sail close hauled as much as possible. The course became better and we could steer more and more to the north. Unfortunately, theory and practice are two different things….

Last night we had a very nice course (earlier than expected). That can never go well for too long… And indeed, the wind ceased.  With very little wind, but with a nice ocean swell, there is not enough pressure in the rig to sail. So we lowered almost all the sails and started the engine. We expect the wind to return sufficiently tonight so that we can raise the sails again.

In the meantime, we are being watched by different animals; a number of birds have looked at us from a distance (unfortunately too far away to make sure what kind of bird it was), we saw dolphins near the ship several times (mostly Atlantic Spotted Dolphins) and a few minutes ago we saw two whales (minke whales) near the ship.

Last night, we also felt some rain drops. It was not enough for what the ship is yearning for to get the Saraha dust out of the masts, but it gives us hope. Today the sun is shining and we enjoy the views.