Day 41 – Strong Head Winds

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 41 of our voyage. Overnight we have continued to make slow progress to the north due to a strong headwind. So as to make it semi comfortable for the crew we tacked on a regular basis last night so that we would not have to take the swell on the nose (bow) which isn’t good for square rigged ships. That said, every now and then we hit a large wave which sends a shudder through the entire ship and it is not very pleasant. Late this afternoon the weather did improve and the wind has now gone light and variable which has meant that we have had to continue to motor sail as we still have over a 1000nm to go to reach Buenos Aires.When I came of watch this evening the wind had dropped to 4-8kts and we were surrounded by a thick sea fog which made it difficult even to see the bow sprit.  Tonight when I asked for a volunteer to write the log the lovely Livvy with her big smile came forward and said Gav I would be happy to do it. So here’s tonight’s Captains Log beautifully written by Olivia (Livvy). Enjoy!! Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain GavFriday 30/1/15Ahoy there, now a full 24hours back at sea after our well needed and loved port stop. White, Red and Blue watches are all getting back into the swing of things with our overnight watches and trying to get back into the routine we were so used to for our previous 4 weeks at sea.  The weather we were expecting in the southern ocean seems to have come slightly later than anticipated and met us here in the Atlantic. The swell has picked up and the fog has rolled in.As one of the female crew on the boat I along with 11 others get the great pleasure of experiencing the 12 birth right up front. With the swell coming strait on the nose of the boat we are rocking back and forth, hence sending the girls flying up and down in our bunks. The vomitron is back. Sometimes the helms person runs strait into a wave and the boats goes flying and therefore so do the girls, sometimes it sounds like the whole boats going to break apart from what we can hear. Unfortunately for a few the seasickness hit them again but there on the mend now but the vomitron doesn’t help in these circumstances.During my watch over night from 2000-0000 I got to try my skills as being the officer of the watch with the assistance of Paige. All watches are taking over each position now and so I thought I would inform you on how I found the responsibility.  So I started off with doing a few fixes on the chart and figuring out when sun set was so I could put the nav lights on. Then Paige decided I was ready to learn the firm ways of the officer and tell off the helms person. This was what I found most challenging, there’s a specific look and hand gesture and a certain amount of teeth showing, unfortunately to Paige’s disgust I was just not up to the challenge. It did give us a laugh at my attempts where I just started looking like a mental patient who had escaped and was yelling at strangers. But I’m still learning so hopefully by the end ill be a pro. Being officer of the watch is all about the look and a little about finding our way to our next way point, so that was my experience in the position with the assistance of Paige.Waking up this morning we got a nice hot breakfast and rugged up to go onto watch again.In Ushuaia Lauren bought a hot water bottle for the cold nights but she made the mistake of leaving it out in the open and when Sandy got up for his watch during the night he froze it for her, and so to Laurens surprise and disappointment in the morning she had a frozen hot water bottle which gave us all a good needed morning laugh. Now our watch consists of learning the real basics of Spanish with Lauren yelling words at us that we have to remember so hopefully it works.Over night the watches were trying to follow the wind which meant that we had to tack and ware the ship a couple of times and hopefully this doesn’t mean were going to be late for our arrival in Buenos Aires because were just zig zagging up the side of South America. Now we are steering to the course again as the wind was just to hard to catch so were just motoring up the coast following our course.Today has been a lazy day for all with it being to rough all activities had been cancelled so we all took the opportunity to catch up on sleep and just chill.Yours ayeOlivia (back to white watch)    “