DAY 6 AT SEA

Hello from the hot south!
After the excitement yesterday it was a relaxed day in terms of sailing. With a steady south-westerly wind, we had to adjust our course and sails little over the day. Porky fought hard for us close-hauled to the wind and stomping in the wave for 134 nautical miles (5.58 knots average) southwards. It’s actually a shame that we pass such a long distance of the African coast without seeing anything of land! After the first doubts we are happy to have got out of the Canary Islands, because allegedly another low pressure system is about to develop in the north. Hopefully we have nothing more to do with that. We won’t break any records with our crossing, but so far everything was relaxed and we will survive the next 1-2 days with little winds before we can hopefully catch the trade winds quickly and make progress towards the west. By then Daniel may have opened the coconut bar in the Caribbean. We also doubled our chances of catching fish by throwing out a second line. Since we only have one fishing rod, a fishing line is now placed around the cleat on the other side with a built-in rubber band, which allows the fish to swim away a little. If a fish bites and the rubber stretches, an empty Coke can is automatically thrown against the pushpit. Tadaaa our fish alarm is that simple! It wasn’t completely installed yet, when the first fish had already bitten into Antonia’s bait. Unfortunately we lost 2 silvery fish with sleek yellow tail fins. Before we skilfully heaved the 3rd fish (seems a different kind of tuna than before) on board. As we are slowly approaching the end of our fresh fruit and vegetable rations, fresh fish is now a welcome change! It is interesting how one devotes oneself to the basic things in life at sea: the will to survive and security in these natural conditions, the health and nutrition of the crew and ultimately enough rest and sleep to start all over again. We haven’t gotten bored yet and if you have a quiet minute you chat, read or listen to something, or just stare at the blue horizon of the ocean and listen. But actually there is always something to do. As you can see, life on board is very simple and satisfying. Through the night and into the morning we still had a little wind in order to make good speed, the waves also became longer and more regular. In the morning the wind dropped completely and we drove to the SW under engine in the hope of catching the trade winds soon. The sun is very hot down here.