Salutations to all the
brave fighters for freedom! We have been bloging on [email protected] but will
also update the arc site from now.
Today we have celebrated
the 199th Norwegian constitution day on Amelie. We are happy to celebrate
that our country was given from Denmark to Sweden. (The
Swedish had us for almost another hundred years, but at least we got a
constitution)
This great day at sea
started with Miky Mikes great banana pancakes with syrup and beacon.
We were debating whether we would march around on the boat singing "Ja vi
elsker" (Norways national song), but we ended
up with the old classic chilling in the sun.
Richard decided that
dessert should be served before dinner so his contribution was to make
bread-and-butter pudding, which was complicated by having no nutmeg and being
unable to use egg yolks, and also that Richard didnt really know what he was
doing, as his time in the galley is usually spent cleaning; cooking is certainly
not his forte. However, the pudding was well received. For dinner we had pork
chops à la
Atlantic complimented with cabbage, potatoes, mayo and red wine
sauce (again) à la
Atlantic. The guys eat up,
finished the red wine and were all happy.
We have not seen any
whales or sharks but Richard saw a dolphin flash by twice early this morning.
or dolphins today. We have 1490 nm
to go, but no other national holidays, so we consider this the ultimate holiday
of them all. If we would have had anything specific to do on the boat, I'm
sure we would all have the day of today.
Richard dragged out his
late fathers antique sextant today and we all had a go at shooting the sun,
with various degrees of success. It remains to be seen whether Richard is truly
capable of turning the sextant readings into anything resembling Amelies actual
position. Frankly, the best most of us hope for is that he manages to place us
in the right ocean
.
The whole crew sends warm
kisses and hugs to everyone in Norway, and on the internet in
general! We all hope you have had a great 17th of may!
Richard has been playing
Amelies bugle, and tomorrow promises to play the Reveille in full as the
Norwegian flag is hoisted over the stern just after dawn. Ski-Per is equally
determined that his morning slumber will not be so disturbed and has now quietly
hidden the bugle somewhere that Richard wont find it
.
I promised you to keep
you up to date on Bendik facial hair, and I can tell you its going better then
ever. He wants to shave at the Azores because
of tanning reasons, which is always a good reason, but Im trying to keep him
motivated to hang in there.
We disagree with the Pet
Shop Boys, and keep singing "Go east"!
Smell you later!
Hi folks back
home, family, friends, enemies (if we have some) and to all you other
Norwegians, and Norwegians to become. The Atlantic
ocean, we the crew on the happy sailboat Amelie, most of the mermaids
and around 2 billion fishes (that we havent sees so fare), we all greets you on
this 199 Norwegian constitution day.
This has been a
fantastic day, the forecast was; NO WIND. We got the best sailing condition ever
with sun from a clear blue sky. Amelie is steadily on a north east course.
We have a daily
competition on who is best on guessing how far we sail in 24 hours. To day
champion in guessing was Bendik, his guess was 141 nm. We sailed 141nm.
Isnt that
impressive guessing from our Skårunge - Norwegian name on a new, young and
inexperienced crewmember.
Bendik is doing
great, but as the skipper I must say he is very occupied on this sun tanning
thing. If he tan anymore we will have a hard time convincing the Portuguese
authorities that he is a Norwegian.
The night is
here and time to go to bed, so long.
Skip-PER