Day 44 – Lights Winds

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 44 of our voyage. Overnight we have continued to motorsail due to the light conditions and besides the noise of the engines it isn’t to bad really especially now that we have a small following swell. Of course I would prefer to just sail but given the distances that we have to travel over a relatively short period of time and lack of wind my only option at this time is to use the Iron Headsails (Main Engines) Being a Monday it is back to the normal routine of Morning Brief, Cleaning Stations, Bridge Watches and other activities organised by the Staff Crew. As highlighted in tonight’s Captains Log you can see a noticeable change in everyone now that the conditions have improved and we have warmer weather. I think that everyone was relatively happy before but life has become a little easier in these pleasant conditions.  Tonight the girls get a break from writing the Log because Reece kindly volunteered to do it. Enjoy!!Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain Gav  Monday 2nd Feb 15   Smooth sailing has been the order of the day today. As we climb our way back north everything has become a little bit more pleasant. The swell is long and rolling which makes sleep a lot easier than previous days of hard sailing which I think has made everyone a bit more rested and happy. The result being that although we have had an overcast day today its still been warm enough for people to get up on the upper decks.  All watches have had fun with knot making and rope work today making bracelets, monkey fist’s (look it up) and practising existing knot skills. The easy day sailing has come with a price though and that price is an indecisive and weak wind as we find ourselves once again in a high pressure system meaning full steam ahead on engines.  That doesn’t mean the three watches haven’t tried for some wind. Setting and furling has been done throughout the day as we try to coax some more speed from the old girl. It’s been fun climbing and working in such pleasant conditions and has made the day go faster.  The big news of the day is that Fiona has completely taken over the galley for the next two days to give Aaron a break. Although she said she is tired after day one she is enjoying it and has turned out some cracking food with the help of Katherine and Shannon. Thanks Fiona! Aaron is so happy to have a couple of days off that he has worn his pyjamas almost all day.   Once again we had an afternoon siesta from twelve till two. The siesta has been a staple routine throughout our trip and has been a great respite to tired crew after long and cold night watches. After the siesta the three watches had boat build off! It was only a paper boat but we had to try and replicate through expert origami an already made example from our sail master Sandy. Winner’s got mint slice. The competition was fierce with white and blue watch making slightly modified versions of Sandy’s boat that we both argued were better than the original! But red watch took out the mint slice biscuits with an almost exact replica of Sandy’s paper boat. Well done guys.  Three of the staff; Aaron, Sandy and Tennille did a Spartan workout at midships which I was silly enough to join in on. It was the most intense thirty minutes of work I have done on the trip so far and left me shaking all over and struggling to get down the steps into the ship. It was worth it though as I think I will sleep well tonight.  Lauren came good on her promise to reward the watch that protected her during the game of Ship’s Assassin that we played a couple of weeks ago. Their reward was cookies and biscuits with an Argentinean sweet called Dulche De Leche which is almost a spreadable caramel. It is a highly coveted commodity at the moment as resources are scarce.  That might change as we get into Buenos Aires which should be roughly in the next four days; weather permitting as always.  Yours AyeReece  “