Day 11: I’ll sail this ship alone (in honour of Otto Van Helm)
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce and thank the fifth
member of our crew Otto Van Helm who has done sterling work, both day and night,
to keep us on track and heading in the right direction. He works best when
the wind is consistent and struggles when it becomes cyclonic bur overall has a
better sense of direction than M-C. We have noticed that the Atlantic wind
has many qualities. It can be gentle and caressing, or fierce and
aggressive. The wind can be gusting 40 knots on top of the mast but appear
to be around 20 at deck level. It can be fluky, swirling, constantly
changing direction, or as we found a few days ago absent!
Otto has had an easy day today. The winds have been a steady 10 – 15
knots and not a squall in sight. His work allowed us to all relax, enjoy
the sunshine and share the halfway bottle of chilled bubbly at lunch time.
It’s hard to believe that we have been at sea for 11 days. Its flown
by.
There have been no birds flying past today. We have missed their
company and their grace. We reflected that we haven't seen any other boats
for three days, and it brings home how vast the ocean is. We are looking
forward to spotting more boats as we head south west towards Saint Lucia.
We are in daily SSB contact with other boats and will be very happy to report
tomorrow that today we caught our first fish.
There was great excitement on board when Ewen went to reel in the
line. We all lined up on deck to greet the fish, a small dorado. So
small that we decided it should be put straight back. It was caught by a
marigold lure. Middle finger. Decorated with indelible paint by
Dave. So far Marigold glove lure 1: Professional fish lure 0.
Our day has been gentle. Steady winds, gentle seas, good speeds and
sunshine. Its given us time to relax, time to reflect and time to laugh.
We have managed some housekeeping and some repairs. We have given Otto the
odd break in his day, but otherwise he has done us proud. Thank you Otto.