Occhi Indaco - Chaotic seas and yummy desserts

It is already our 8th day at sea (it’s Monday) and constant long nights have tired the crew. We have decided to change the boat time today so we are now UTC-2.

The last two days have been messy… winds and waves have been everywhere and crew watch shifts have been completely turned upside down while we have combated the ever changing conditions. One crew member has been sick which has also had an effect on our watch schedule.

Yesterday we decided it was a day off so no chores. The crew took advantage of the time to relax and it was very quiet on deck. Chores aside, there was a lot of cooking as the freezer also decided it was its day off- we needed to prepare many foods that had thawed. It was a great excuse to make a delicious 😋 banana cake, a carrot cake, and apple crumble. None of them lasted very long. We have decided to have the joint meal at noon as everyone has been up at that time. We try to get the whole crew together at least once per day. The Sunday special was Thai Salmon cakes with coconut rice (captains favorite). We also shared a bottle of nice wine. We must say that we have several chefs onboard, and several crew members who love to indulge. It doesn’t matter whether it is a cup of salted nuts on the table or a fresh baked loaf of bread - everything disappears as morning dew disappears with the sun.

The weather today was lovely. It even allowed us a chance to get out the chessboard this evening. After dark the conditions took a turn for the worse and poor Otto the autopilot could not compensate. We had to hand steer all night.

Fishing update: There still hasn’t been any fish caught on board because we are still working on undoing the tangled fishing rod. Now we took all the line off and put new line on so we at least could get the line out for a while.

Monday was again a normal day filled with chores, boat projects and a couple of mishaps. We have been hand steering most of the day to give Otto a break. He is doing it quite well but unfortunately complaining of fatigue.

We had lasagne with Greek salad for lunch. No wine today. The deck was cleaned thoroughly and the running light was fixed, or at least we thought so! It went back out after 3 hours, so we will try again tomorrow.

Tonight while we were reefing the main a car broke loose from the mast. It is the same car that caused issues before so it must have been more damaged than originally suspected.

A few crew members are not taking the waves well and are having a few issues with indigestion so prunes have been on the menu tonight. These fall along side with two freshly baked loaves of bread and homemade apple strudel.

As the day came to a close, the sunset was like a red ball of fire sinking into the ocean. The moon was up shorty after that and then ducked into the clouds. It was beautiful to look at while it lasted, but we also acknowledge clouds mean we have to keep a closer lookout for squalls through the night.

Tomorrow midday we will reach the halfway point for our journey, champagne chilling in the fridge for a mini celebratory lunch. Our captain is feeling proud of what we’ve accomplished this far, and definitely loves his crew ❤️