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Aretha - Day 2 at Sea - Are we nearly there yet?



Life is settling down into more of a routine onboard Team Aretha.

The children are waking and going to bed at the agreed times. Meals and routine maintenance are becoming established. Sleep patterns are adjusting. When it’s your 3 hours off in the night you sleep when your head hits the pillow and you wake rapidly when woken for your watch. I’m always impressed by how adaptable we can be as humans to different patterns - it just takes a little time to get used to it.

It helps to have a flat deck and downwind sailing. There is still a little sea sickness on board - Nichola is battling through and has Jani with bouts of queasiness for company. Thankfully the children are 100% fine and happily playing and helping around the boat.

One of the questions raised before we left was “will we see many boats whilst at sea?” I feel qualified to now answer. Day 1 was understandably full of boats all around us - both day and through the night. Today though it thinned out. We could see our friends on Cygnus Pena - a beautiful Swan and chatted to them on the VHF when they were 11 miles away. Apart from that, we’ve seen maybe 2 or 3 boats today. The evenings are better for spotting boats - tonight I can see 6 lights to Port although none are showing on AIS so by my estimations are all a good 10 plus miles away. It’s definitely quieter and you’re aware you are in the middle of the Atlantic.

Winds have been variable today. This evening has been better - we have a consistent 12-15 knots from the NE giving us c7 knots directly towards St Lucia. Fingers crossed this holds and we can get some more pressure to increase speed. We’re looking forward to the weather warming up and are still wearing jackets at night. We’re expecting that to change in the coming days.

Question from Bluebell (aged 9) today: Are we nearly there yet?

Me - No.

Bluebell - how far is it to go?

Me - 2,500 miles.

Bluebell. oh.

On board education starts tomorrow. Paul will be sharing some of his lectures and presentations on topics such as Captain Cook, Nelson, Myths and Legends of the Sea and many more. Education is all around for the children and they thrive having lots of time from different people. Today’s talk was on Longitude and how Harrison invented the Chronometer.

Final comment of the day comes from Willow (aged 2):

“I love sailing around the world”

All is well on board Team Aretha.

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