Day 8 - a week for a whale
Regina
Espen Aalstad
Sun 2 Dec 2007 13:03
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19:14N 31:20W
E wind 15-20 knots just as forecasted by ARC. 8-10
knots speed last 24 hours. Change to showers and bigger waves - it rolls in
3-4 meters. One big one in the dark morning hours brought a gibe and broke the
preventer rope off! We feel everyday the power of nature here. The
spinnaker boom is holding though though we hold our breaths in
the bigger waves and watch the windex.
We love Otto, autopilot: he does a much better job
than any of us in the big waves.
A week at sea. So far we are all positively
surprised. Northern Europe waters was more demanding on Regina and crew.
We are learning our boat and its capacity and
debating repairs and how to gain speed.
We are telling stories and laughing. Ole's from
charter and big ocean life is endless. Soon we have compared Norway and Sweden
on most fronts.
We are eating well and food are keeping
surprisingly well. Fajitas yesterday, Einar. Today we go fishing
again.
We are drinking enough water ...and have enjoyed
both glogg and our daily small ration of better liquids.
We are sleeping when we can making up for night
shifts ...adjusting to the bigger rolls with pillows and positions. Now the
narrower front cabins are more popular.
We feel fresh ...adopting to primitive hygiene and
still enjoy eachother thanks to deodorants and wet napkins - showers are
available! Espen is growing a beard. Regi washes hair in buckets of salt
water.
We trace our position ...and those of others who
are doing better and worse! Ray's daily update is so far not great reading
for Regina with our early southerly tack not ideal.
We enjoy the emails of new ARC friends and from ARC
control...others have at least as eventful incidents as us. Victoria wins the
humor prize.
We are talking about the weather all the time...and
worry less about the forecast.
Elin is getting a little tired of the adult at
times and disappears into her MP3 world or her history book. She will do well in
today's quiz is entertainment.
We are not reading as much as we planned
as the week simply flew by.
We are not sea sick....and have gotten our sea
legs.
We are waiting for more ocean life - only a big
whale this morning!
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