Proud fishermen
What fish is this?
Vale & Carla
A Squall on the horizon
Over and out
here is herbert again, on board of MILANTO.
it's done - earlythis morning we arrived ,at 03:24 am local time to be precise . due to the genious navigation of Valerio we flew our spi till the cap of Pigeon Island, and crossed the line with white sails up on a perfect beating course . what a feeling!
berthed in the marina we awaited sunrise....... a moment to be a little emotional.....
Thank you all for following this blog and joining us on our journey.
It's been a great experience, more than great. in fact you should try for yourselves. The very best to you all
Herbert
ahoi
over and out
My thanks to Josef and Herbert who were delightful company all the way across as well as being highly skilled fishermen! And the whole trip was memorable due to the enthusiasm, energy and cheerfulness of our onboard Neapolitan, Carla. What a fantastic ARC. Thanks again guys! Vale
Milanto is now in Rodney Bay, St Lucia
What a day!
buongiorno after the morning routine of cleaning and maintenance of the various pumps and filters x the soft water sustems, coffees, teas and various breakfasts everyone lay down on the deck to enjoy the sun and the wind , which thank goodness is continuing meaning that we are travelling fast towards St Lucia f. The spinnaker is resting, reaching with white sails and jazz music, The Tropics are like that, we have lunch and eat supper , change the lures on our fishing rods but not a fish in sight. Well , not quite we lost one around 15kgs. yesterday -we tried to get it on board for over an hour but finally the hook broke and it slipped back into the sea. What a pity! So as I said everyone around me looks like they are at the beach. half asleep or staring into space. A real detox! Herbert tells me that he has not even got the energy or the will to read -his brain has totally switched off..It will be hard to go back to an onland routine after this , We are getting close to having only 600 nm. to go circa .Despite the lack of fish the Michelin 3star food continues chicken curry , lasagne with pesto , pork with mustard, freshly cooked bread with nuts and seeds , fresh salads ,with splash of red or white wine. No complaints there
It's not easy even writing ,surrounded by sun, clouds and the Oceann and how this effects us. The greatest experience is being part of this giant 'kitchen' where all the ingredients change continually, the smell, the colour and the shape. It will certainly influence our life later back on land.
9 HOURS LATER......a day of 2 parts!This afternoon turned into the 'kitchen' form hell! Squlla that hit you with bolts of water so you cannot relax for a second,Our Austrian friends desperately wanted to catch a fish but no luck all morimmo and by the afternoon they were demoralised and gave up. However the then remembered that they had a present to open -it being St Niklaas today so the day when many N.European children open a present or two . Inside were 4 gingerbread biscuits in the shape of the saint. ,so as a joke I pretended to receive a Skype call from St Niklaas requesting a fish.and promised in return to mend his sack and any toys that were broken! About one hour later, as the sun was going down looks what we pulled on board. I have never caught one like this before. oooh whaoo !So I went down on my knees, in front of the remaining gingerbread figure and gave thanks!
The best present!
Speed: 7.8 knots @ 252.56°
Position at: 06 Dec 2014 20:00 UTC
Lat/Lon: 16° 37.77 N, 051° 0.54 W
DTF: 596.2 NM
Distance (last 24hrs): 184 NM
9th in All Racing Division
39th in All boats
6th in Racing B
Happy Birthday!
Milanto is only 46' so you would not think one could pull a fast one an anybody on board. But Carla did! She managed to cook a chocolate cake without Valerio even noticing so he was mega happy with the surprise of the yummy present ...and a bottle of champagne to wash it all down.
The sun is out, one can feel the Tropics in the air, no need to wrap up any more during the day.Speed, thanks to the spinnaker is good
Speed: 7.6 knots @ 268.52° Position at: 01 Dec 2014 12:00 UTC
Lat/Lon: 21° 49.60 N, 035° 29.31 W DTF: 1524.4 NM Distance (last 24hrs): 178 NM
12th in All Racing Division 47th in All boats 8th in Racing B
--Hi everybody
good morning today i s a great day and we have so many things to celebrate that we are thinking to organize a party on board so everyone who is in the aerea is welcome to join us
you maybe think that I'm little bit crazy but let's go in order
FIRST of all today is our first sunny day ole'
SECOND we finally changed our point of sail and now we are downwind sail urra'
THIRD last night we fly the kite all the night and Milanto were going so fast that she seems to fly on the water, but unfortunately we just blow it up so were are again on white sails for the moment sigh sigh...... BUT WE have a spare spinnaker so soon it will fly AGAIN
FORTH we've lready sailed more than 1200miles almost half way of our trip and this is another reason to celebrate
fifth but the most important reason to have a party on board today is that TODAY IS OUR SKIPPER BIRTHDAY so must have fun that why now we are going to have a special menu:
home made pesto lasagne, curry chicken, chocolate and pear cake
and champagne as drink
not so bad isn't true?
(by the way last night "rabbit au vin" was great)
Blog 28th Nov
Good Morning!
This is our fifth day on board already. unbelievable - time went so fast, just in a blink of an eye .I promised myself to write a blog/log everyday, but I can't keep that up. there is so much to do in the daily routine. handling sails, cooking, repairing, fishing, night and dayshifts and trying to catch up with sleep. Josef won our bet re the fishing yesterday - his MahiMahi, in brilliant gold and white, appr. 80 cm long, which Carla prepared for todays dinner. Thank you! So, what else can I tell you? the ride till yesterday was bumpy with quite a lot of high waves, but not really too bad. Since last night we are on a beamridge-course, with calm winds and cruising is now comfortable.
There is not much I can tell you, that is not written allready by bigger authors than I am - regarding the sea, the wind, the waves and the men and women riding or fighting it. Defoe, Hemingway, Lord Nelson, etc., every genre from piratephantasy to war-at-sea-tactics. even Amerigo Vespucci elaborated in his short log about the passion of men to conquer and survive the oceans of this world. it will be more interesting for you to read them instead of my poor opinion - anyhow I am some hundred years to late to explore any new perspective to this issue. So I will tell you what impresses me the most. It's those millions, billions, trillions of waves, this enormous mass of condensed wind energy, big ones, small ones, small ones riding on top of big ones, all different and at the same time - all the same. when you look at them in the directon of the sun they look like melted lead, on the other side they are dark blue at the bottom and light blue - sometimes even transparent near the top, with this fancy little foam on top like the icing of a cake or the seam of a chanel costume.the wind draws a regular orangeskin on their surface and sometimes you see the fish inside the waves like looking into an aquarium.this enormous mass of energy - how could we use this, how to harvest this. at my next nightshift I am going to think of it.
all the best to all of you, best regards from Carla, Josef and Valerio to all those who are following us
ahoi
Herbert
p.s: i wish the wind would have a body - so much easier to find him than. (melville - and product of Josef's knowlegebase)
br h2