Pasing the equator

Today, August 11th, 2012, at around 10am UTC we passed the equator and went from summer right to winter, the sun is now in the northe instead of the south and the wind moves into the low pressure zones in the other direction. Another 2 days to go, now we can see the end coming. Hopefully the wind stays the way it is now....
Yesterday and huge Wahoo decided to give his life for Marcus and Eva, who happily took the about 1,5m (!; about 4ft) long fish and filteted it after Marcus had a query with it and almost had to go into the water to get the fish who was playing with the boat. The Wahoo was so strong that whilst being on the line he pulled the boat through the wind and waves. Thank god Marcus knows what he is doing and is strong enough to won over the fish..Well, ever since then (yestarday 2pm) Marcus and Eva are eating fish. Amazing we still have fresh food. Fresh fish, still salad we can make...But tomorrow the fresh stuff besides the fish) ends. Marcus wants to give fish to other sailboats at anchor since he and Eva can't finish it by themselves.
Now we're at position 00°39,3'S and 029°20'W travelling course 220° at about 5-6 knots average. We're looking forward to the end of this trip, although the trip itself is nice and mostly calm and we have been very lucky with the weather and food ;-) Marcus professionally brings us to our next target point.

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Almost no wind

We're at position 02°21'N and 027°03,7'W today, August 9th, 2012 and slowly moving along course 220. During my night shift around 2 am UTC this morning the wind left and never really came back since. So in an average we're travelling 3,5 knots = 3,5nm an hour and we still have about 500nm to go. The weather forecast says it's going to stay like that for another day. The advantage is of course it's a lot calmer, a beautiful day and Eva's and my stomach can relax a bit and take a break from the waves.So my predicting of arriving on sunday might even fail, it could be monday or, even worse, tuesday. At least we still have enough food and Marcus is already trying to catch a new fish since we had a fish free day yesterday. For the four days before that Marcus and Eva were working on eating the big Mahi Mahi before it got bad. I stick to vegetables so far.
Since it's so quiet last night watched 2,5 movies in my night shift. A good way to stay awake and get some input of "life" since nothing is happening here ;-)
I am very much looking forward to reaching the island(s) of Fernando de Noronha. About 1500 Dolphins live there! It's a world natural preserve and only 475 tourists are allowed per day on the island. I hope we are allowed to stay there at the anchorage in the north (meaning I pray that the daily limit of people is not reached yet). I need the break before going on and Eva can't wait to eat italian ice cream which supposedly they offer there. It's all very exclusive there, only the richest of Brazilians can afford to travel there. And now is already main season. We'll see.

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A quiet day

Ok wind, travelling at about 4-5 knots average. At night in my shift I had to start the engine which then run for 4 hrs. Now we're in position 03°53'N and 026°20,6'W, so we're getting closer to the equator. If we're lucky we make it to the island within a total of 11 days, which was my guess. We'll see. Everybody is well up. I will watch a movie tonight to see something different than just water all day...And laugh.

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Sunset

Today, August 7th, 2012, we had the most beautiful sunset of this trip. Again we did not see the sun til the end but almost. In the afternoon the clouds come up and bring back down what had gone up during the day. We're now in position 05°26,8'N and 025°14,4'W at 1953 UTC.
Ever since I set the sails yesteday morning at 0743 UTC we were able to leve the motor out, meaning we made it through the calm zone where there is no wind. The wind got stronger yesterday over the day and thus the waves higher causing our boat to be on one side all the time while riding the waves up and down making it uncomfortable to sleep. During the day the wind was constant and so is our sidewards tilt. Makes it difficult to walk around or go to the toilet - and to cook. Nev ertheless we still eat well from all the fresh vegetables and fruits be bought in Praia. Eva seems quite pleased with the food. WE'll see how it goes on, since we soon run out of fresh stuff and have to make food out of canned stuff. I don't know how much longer we'll be on the way, maybe 4-5 days more but I can't wait to arrive on the islands Fernando de Noronha. I am tired of not being able to move around or even relax. Muscles are always working out in order to be able to sit or stand. ...Plus, to be honest, I very much miss the possibility to go out, move, run, dance. More than I thought. Well, soon it'll be over...
If nothing spectacular happens, I might not be blogging tomorow or the day after. Marcus is alway wrinting in the german blog (sail-alita.blogspot.com), so you'll find the current position there. Bye

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Calm seas

Today, sunday august 5th, 2012, the weather is calm. The wind keeps changing direction (not as bad though today as the last days) so it's still hard for us to follow our route. We still have to cross against the wind to get into the direction we want to go. We're about 1,5 days behind schedule. Marcus said 9 days, I said 11, we'll see. At least most of today we're mostly going kind of the direction we need, around 194 course over ground (COG). Our current postition is 08°33,4'N and 023°42,2'W. Crew is well up. Nothing exciting happening besides yellow algea/ seagrass passing by and the evening rain about to come. Have a great evening.

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