Day 23 – A Little Rough Weather

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 23 of our voyage. Overnight as we transited along the southern coast of Sicily the nice calm conditions that the World Voyager of Passage Four have become accustomed to changed and we were suddenly experiencing wind gusts of over 30kts and an unpleasant 2m sea. This has meant the reoccurrence of seasickness for a few of our young adventures but they have still managed to battle on. The good news is that this weather did not stay with us for very long and by late afternoon the wind had again moderated to 15kts and the sea was back to 1m. Given the conditions throughout the day we have made it easy for the Crew with the only real requirements being cleaning stations (Happy Hour) and keeping our watch, which has given everyone the opportunity to catch up on some much needed rest.  The time is now 2030 and we are currently located 100nm to the southeast of Sardinia motor sailing in light conditions. Our current plan is to continue making ground to the south of Sardinia overnight then hopefully pickup the forecasted northerly change, alter course to the west and then shape a new course for Spain.  Tonight it is Pink Watches turn to write the Log and volunteering to tell you about their day is Lucy and Tim so please enjoy!  Until tomorrow, take careYours AyeCaptain GavCaptains Log16May 2015-05-16Ahoy there me hearties!Tim and Lucy here from Pink Watch ready to update you on the events of the 16th of May. For some it’s been rather reoccurring (breakfast, lunch and dinner that is…) but for others it has been another day, appreciating life and the adventures one can have at sea.  We started our day on watch, observing the 1.5m swell, the 24knots of wind and the havoc that it caused. Water flowed over the bow, lightening was sighted up ahead and things looked rather grim. For a watch of 8, we got down to 3 people still standing- some laying flat on deck despising life, others feeding the fish but some up and excited, looking for adventure.  Our excitement finally arrived with Salty Seadog and his ever helpful ‘companions’ Dougie and Marcos. We were enlightened by his insightful and historical renditions of Sea Shanties, the naming of the Dog Watches- complete with true and accurate ‘props’ and the naming of Nelson’s balls. As ever, highly entertaining and informative- I still would like to believe that there is some truth within his stories, however, I remain ever so sceptical.  After a quiet and somewhat sparse Happy Hour, Zooper Doopers (icy poles) lifted moods just enough to set the storm trysail. An effective task with the previous winds, however as Murphy’s Law states, once completed the wind died down. It still enabled us to practice our team work skills, reminded us of the steps required and built some positive morale within Pink Watch.  After our watch from 0800- 1200 the galley and deck emptied like a ghost town, many catching up on sleep from their adventures in Malta or trying to sleep off sea sickness. Creamies started their watch with a little more enthusiasm and their laughter was even contagious! I, Lucy, joined in with the Creamies tasks, furling the mainstay sail, bracing the yards and tacking the storm trysail till the ship was tiddly-boo! For me personally, things are slowly making more and more sense now, it feels pretty cool to understand roughly 75% of instructions as opposed to the 5% at the beginning!  Creamies engaged in a game of mortal combat, where they were required to ‘FIGHT TO THE DEATH’! They pulled a stocking over their heads with a tennis ball at the end, and twirled around trying to hit the other player. It was possibly the funniest thing to watch, with grown men throwing their heads back and forth trying to fling a tennis ball to make contact.  After some convincing a few of us managed a climb to the lower top to enjoy the view and the rumblings of the sea. Somewhat disconcerting to realise that only hours previously we had actually observed our favourite Doctor Nick, hurling his breakfast over that very deck. He still maintains that it was more of a sympathetic spew for another Aqua Trooper who may have used her jacket to ‘store her breakfast for later consumption’. A big shout out to our dearest Vicky for powering through, displaying admirable strength and endurance   Another important shout out goes directly to our most scrumptious Chefo Adrian and his lovely helpers Yak and Reina, for their perfectly timed toasties and nachos- thanks and well done.Love to all at home, hope you’ve enjoyed our stories of life on the sea.Love Lucy and Tim (Pink Watch!)Hey Mum and Dad,All going well, had a ball in Malta- really enjoyed ourselves and stayed safe on the scooters  I haven’t been sick yet, thankfully! Keep myself busy and enjoying the experience. Hope all at home is going well, miss you both. Hope your knee is coming along Dad… Love to you all xxx  Abbey! Good luck for All Shook Up- am thinking of you and missing you immensely. Hope all is going well at home, miss you all. I’m looking up always and loving this life. Say hi to everyone at OSCC for me please! Love you all xxx2/3 Crowden and Spreyton Primary- am having such an adventure, thinking of you often. Pleased everything is going well. I am hearing wonderful reports! Much love to you all. Miss Murfet xx  Hi Mum and Dad and the most important honeyAll is going well between seasickness but wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, finally getting my head around all the ropes but still have a lot more still to learn here. Miss you all  Good Morning! I can tell you that altitude training is of no use at preventing sea sickness. This is most unfortunate. I haven’t sighted GotheReds Gustavo either, so perhaps he went sailing elsewhere. Hello to the doggies at Wallaby Hill I hope you’re working hard. We had nachos for dinner so life is awesome! Keep living the dream people! Ciao Ann  Heya landlubbers! Loving life sailing the Med, only problem is that I forgot to pack my SeaLegs so Tess, if you could have them express posted to Gibraltar Port Authority well, that would be swell! Hope everyone is well! Much love, Mitch.