The writer has surfaced!

good morning!
this is herbert, aboard the MILANTO on her cruise from LasPalmas to St.Lucia. after two days of seasickness I am back to life again - and I can tell you, you cant imagine how happy I am about that. here we are - in the middle of nowhere, no better place to be. to be a little more accurate: 25.10.07N,23.16.09, bearing 257 at approximatly 8kts.
Due to my not well being, I missed the first blog, so please excuse any repititions, as well please excuse my poor english (I am not improving much on that with so many Italians on board). Furthermore I have to fight this keyboard, where the numbers are stuck and the keys are mixed in the britain order.
well, there is a lot to tell. short after the start Valerio got us to see dolphines, turtles and flying fish. This was much more than to be expected - so what more has he got in mind for us for all the days to come? I am curious and looking forward to it. Josef, our master of competitionfishing is chainging the bait every hour - the three of us have a bet runnig, who's lure will bring the biggest fish. in sunny weather with a nice wind of 18kts we are enjoying the calm sea. whoever want's to learn about a love between a ship and a man should come here and watch Valerio and his "Lady" MILANTO. She calms down whenever he touches her, he motivates her to encrease speed by doing some small turns at the winch, and smooth she dives into the waves due to a small change of direction. he is taking care of her and she cares about him. The old lady may have some tweaks, but Valerio also is not a teen anymore. They grew up together obviously. it's almost a hidden vocabulary they share. she gives a small clank with the beam or shows her knickers by flapping the genua and he is up and on board to her attention. and while he sleeps (mainly at the small cot in the navigationcorner), she is cruising on her own and protecting captain and crew, under this wonderful starfilled sky. I love to watch him, when he intends any manoever. than he is standing on the stairs, fitting his hairband, looking up into the sails - in silence - and holding a nonverbal communication with his "Lady". shall we shake out the reef my dear? What do you think about rolling out the Genua myLADY, would this be fine for you? may I help you out with a second sail in front,sweetheart? And whatever the answer is, it will be just between the two of them. then he climbs on deck, moves there like a cat, almost as if the movement of the ship supports his forthcoming. he raises his foot - and up comes the deck to support his step; he stretches out his hand - and a small shuggle of the boat puts the vant in his hand. lines get rigged, tightened and reefed, sails moved, set, gibbed and back he is again at the stairs, looking up again, with the nonespoken question: are you fine now my best? as an answer we only get a small spray from the next wave, but I am sure, Valerio can hear her say: I am grateful for your understanding and forward looking my captain - and on she goes, never tired. If you need something to laugh about, you should watch me - moving around on deck. compared to me, a turtle looks like a ballettdancer on toetips.
my greatest thanks go to Carla and Josef, who took care of me in the hours of dying. "herbert, you have to eat this rice!" Carla said and confronted me with a big bowl of cooked rice. I couldn't even look at it first. but ricecorn by ricecorn, spoon by spoon I tried to fullfill her demand. once I finished the bowl and recovered some sleep I returned to the living. Carla is at the moment our chef de cuisine, but I am looking forward to help out once I am in form again. Carla, as a professional skipper, gives Valerio all the helping hand he needs. even Josef is on deck to shake out the reef or to shuffle with the lines - up to now I am just luggage to be worried about. So Valerio put me here to write the blog - hopefull that I will not damage anything.
FISH, FISH, FISH, what an upraor on deck! camera out, jumping up the stairs - and a very disappointed Josef gives me a "fuck-lost". So it's probably going to be lasagne this evening and not sushi.
so far so good!
all the best till soon
ahoi
herbert

Feeling a bit better

So we are all settling in and luckily  the sea-sickness  suffered  by Herbert has nearly passed and more than just white rice is being served at last.  Maybe we'll do some fishing soon too!

2222 NM to go

489 NM sailed so far

Travelling at 7.7 to 8.4 kn  so happy with that

Pos at 12UTC  25.9 N 23.17W

At time of posting:

27 Nov 16:002191 NM
520 NM  8.4 knots
180 NM in last 24 hrs

 Estimated arrival   08 Dec 12:26!

First day out

After a fantastic start when we were surfing at an incredible 11kn. down some big waves the wind died and we got stuck under the island . We had to work all night  by pointing south and pulling sails up and down. Everyone was getting pretty fed up with all the sails flapping, finally the main was dropped and a tiny patch of genoa was left out until finally we found the wind again around 5 am  and the expected 15/20 kn. of wind reappeared from nowhere!

Position at 26 Nov 2014 00:00UTC

26 26 N 018.40 W 

DFT 2480.8 NM

148 NM sailed

If you would like to follow Milanto please go to :

World Cruising

This link takes you to the Yellow Brick -an online system where you can follow Milanto and all the other boats. Our friends on board Monomotapa are doing well but they have a lot of guys on board so  the spinnaker is up!