Good morning!
This is again Herbert from MILANTO on her course to St.Lucia. This is our fifth day on board already. Unbelievable - time went so fast, just in a blink of an eye. I promised myself to write a blog/log everyday, but I can't keep that up. There is so much to do in the daily routine. Handling sails, cooking, repairing, fishing, night - and dayshifts and trying to catch up with the sleep. Josef did win our bet regarding the fishing yesterday - he caught a MahiMahi, in brilliant gold and white, appr. 80 cm long, which Carla prepared with great effort for todays dinner. Thank you Carla for this. So, what else can I tell you? The ride till yesterday was bumpy and partly with high waves, but not really bad. since last night we are on a beam-ridge course, with calm winds and cruising comfortable. Still 1874nM ( = nautical Miles for you landrats)to go.
There is not much I can tell you, that is not written already by bigger authors than I am - regarding the sea, the wind, the waves and the men and women riding or fighting it. Defoe, Hemingway, Lord Nelson, etc., every genre from pirate phantasy to war-at-sea-tactics. even Amerigo Vespucci elaborated in his short log about the passion of men to conquer and survive the oceans of this world. it will be more interesting for you to read them instead of my poor opinion - anyhow I am some hundred years to late to explore any new perspective to this issue. So I will tell you what impresses me the most. It's those millions, billions, trillions of waves, this enormous mass of condensed wind energy, big ones, small ones, small ones riding on top of big ones, all different and at the same time - all the same. when you look at them in the direction of the sun they look like melted lead, on the other side they are dark blue at the bottom and light blue - sometimes even transparent near the top, with this fancy little foam on top like the icing of a cake or the seam of a channel costume.the wind draws a regular orangeskin on their surface and sometimes you see the fish inside the waves like looking into an aquarium.this enormous mass of energy - how could we use this, how to harvest this. at my next nightshift I am going to think of it.
all the best to all of you, best regards from Carla, Josef and Valerio to whoever is looking into this.
ahoi
Herbert
p.s: i wish the wind would have a body - so much easier to find him than. (Melville - and product of Josef's knowlege base)