‘Boring’ Forties

20 January 2025

‘Boring’ Forties

As expected, we were able to raise the sails again this morning, and since then the engine hasn’t been turned on. The wind picked up gently but, unfortunately, soon started to die down again. Last night, we mostly drifted. The ‘Roaring Forties’ haven’t really lived up to their name so far – which I don’t mind at all. On board, we’ve therefore renamed the area the ‘Boaring Forties.’ However, we may have brought this upon ourselves, because – just as we’re about to sail into the Furious Fifties, we’re expecting a heavy wind tomorrow.

In the meantime, life on board goes on as usual. Just like we have laundry day on Wednesdays, we do safety drills on Saturdays. On the first Saturday of this trip, we did a MOB (man overboard) drill with an old smoke flare. Last week, we did a fire drill, and yesterday we had an ‘abandon ship drill.’ It’s really important to keep practicing these emergencies so there are no surprises when it’s time for the real deal.

A while ago, part of the crew started doing ‘planking’ to train their core muscles. Timo and Matu are usually the winners of this exercise, but at the first session, they were thoroughly beaten by guest Melanie. While the guys could usually hold their backs straight for almost three minutes, Melanie effortlessly lasted eight minutes. She stopped ‘because it was so boring.’ Everyone is practicing hard, but to beat Melanie, they still have a long way to go… Tomorrow (in about half an hour here), sailor Silja will be celebrating her birthday. So in addition to a strong wind, the day will mostly be about her birthday. That means lots of singing, streamers, and, of course, another delicious cake from Sjoerd!