Gwendoline - 5. day at sea

S/Y Gwendoline M - Atlanterhavskryds
25. november. 11.50 UTC.
On bord Lene, Bente, Annette, Maiken, Oliver, Orla og Kim
Position: 22.04.52N 19.45.10W


The fifth day at sea is near to its end. We have until now sailed 490 NM, giving an average of close to 99 NM per 24 hours. This is very far away from our estimate of 132 NM per 24 hours. The wind has indeed been, just as Chris Tibbs promised us, very light.

Yesterday morning, we had the "Great bathing day" - as Bente helped Annette to wash her hair on the aft deck. It was quite a challenging endeavor because of the movements of the boat - but Annette was quite satisfied with the result - even though it was a bit chilly to start with.

We also got an exercise in our "man-over-board" routine, as Annette observed what at first sight looked like a rescue buoy or a half inflated life raft. All crew was called on deck, the genoa was rolled in, engine started, and the ship turned 180 degrees. Oliver climbed to the top of the roof, and was the first to spot "the floating item" again, and he directed us, as we carefully sailed closer to it. It turned out to be a lot of orange buoys tied closely together. We expect it to be from a fishing trawl.

We immediately turned off the engine, in order not to get anything entangled in the propeller, turned 180 degrees again, re-sat the genoa, and got back on track.

It took us approximately one hour to "rescue" the buoys, but compared to the remaining 500 hours, it does not make any significant change to our final time.

During yesterday afternoon, the seasickness slowly loosened it's grip on the crew. Lene is feeling very well, also in the saloon, but she still needs to wear her acupuncture wristbands. Annette was also down below and did the dishes after supper together with Bente. It went very fine, no seasickness at all. Maiken had a good day yesterday, almost without any seasickness.

Everybody slept well last night, which also improved the general health and mood on board.

During our night watch, Orla and I was honored by the visit from two young dolphins. We noticed them as they jumped out of the water only a few meters behind S/Y Gwendoline M. The two very large splashes were impossible not to hear. We then saw them as they swam around and under the boat, like two underwater missiles gone crazy. The water was filled with "Morild" - Danish word, do not know the English - but it is small marine life, giving a flashlight when they are touched.

We were able to follow the dolphins underwater play by watching the lightning trails they left by the "Morild" they touched. They entertained us for ten minutes, and puff - away they went. A truly mazing sight which is almost impossible to describe with words only.

The night sky last night was overwhelming as we in ore watched the milky way - and indeed understood the origin of this name. We saw several shooting stars, and Bente and Maiken was entertained by the most stunning sunrise ever.

This morning, Lene has spoiled the entire crew by baking fresh buns. The excitement would no end take, when Bente turned these freshly backed buns into numerous mouth watering delicious lunch buns with ham, tomatoes, cabbage and onions.

The very light wind has apparently taken its toe on several ARC boats, as we from ARC Control has been advised, that four boats has chosen to sail into Cap Verde to refuel diesel.

We still have lots of diesel - approximately 1.000 liters left - so it should not be a problem for us. Our solar panels are giving us plenty of "juice" on the batteries 3-7 Ah in the best hours of the day.

Over and Out from
S/Y Gwendoline M
Atlanten