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Fryderyk - Day 13-14 - Dec 2nd-3rd, 2022



Day 13-14
Date: Dec 2nd-3rd, 2022
Position: 16'47,551N; 41'14,360W
Distance to destination: 1149nm

Last days are slow on board but also the wind has slowed down. Our strategy was to go as much S and then W to take as much advantage of current winds as we could. It was working pretty sweet until day 10/11, we had a perfect wind that was carrying us straight to Rodney Bay. That was until we've found that there'll be a huge strip of silence ahead and it will go all the way down to 14'N. We were somewhere around 17'N then so we decided to go S again. Unluckily we were (and still are!) out of any internet connection (damn you Iridium and your 30 minutes full of interruptions lame ass sessions to download 200Kb grib map!) and current forecasts, especially other boats daily position updates and weather grib maps. We rely solely on our friends and stuff that they send to us through Garmin InReach texts, so big love goes to Marzena, Kuba, Basia and Przemek!

On Dec 3rd wind got down to 6kt during day, and it got even lower to 2kt during night, so we decided to turn the engines on so we can get through silence. Otherwise it felt like being stuck here for days and it'd not be such a bad thing per se, but some of us have some obligations and still, this is rally, so being on the finish line is inherent part of this experience! It's not the best way to gain mileage, but it's acceptable and it is what it is. You cannot change the weather, you have to adjust, like with everything here on the ocean. We still hope the wind will build up soon and we can sail again.

So, what do you do on a boat that goes slowly and requires minimum attention and maintenance? You adjust. I've just finished my second book (Tokarczuk's Bizarre Tales), we talk a lot about anything really, playing made up games (throwing olive seeds through designated path), taking our mattress for a walk, so it can also see the world and get some tan, trying to desperately catch a fish, writing a blog... we just made things up :) But mostly we just talk, read and gaze. Hard to imagine better space for that.


Yesterday's evening sky was one of the most subtle yet spectacular. Sun was already down but its lights were still vivid on the sky, bouncing from clouds in a feerie of colors, from light grey through blue steel, lilac, mint green, pastele yellow, peachy pink, to orange and cranberry red, and projecting all of this on the water, like it was saying "I'm here and I'll always be here". As the time passed sky turned misty blue and it all became one with the ocean, merged by a light fog that was evaporating from the ocean. The day was over.

Now as I sit on my night watch, it's like the time is running backwards. Dark grey sky turns cobalt blue as twilight is showing its pale face. It's so calm and quiet. Closer to sunrise the more colors are being painted on eastern sky. Today's chefs menu looks like vanilla-strawberry ice cream, with pastele yellow strip close to the horizon and creamy pink topping. We didn't get any ice cream on board and if there's one thing that is the most consistently to randomly pop-up in our conversations that is ice cream! We crave ice creams! We consumed 12 packs of butter within first 7 days of the rally so I guess someone from the crew was trying to cope with lack of ice cream in a Machiavellian way. Perpetuator unknown.


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