Shame about the rain

Last night and this morning the sails have been flapping, the boat shuddering  as the wind has gone on holiday while the waves have decided to stay on track..... to add to the agony it is raining too. Feels like we've falle into one of those Tropical hole where you go mad and throw yourself over board! So after lunch we have decided, despite being short handed to pull up the spinnaker , the wind is just there, though very light .What is going to happen tonight - poor Milanto Thank goodness for the wonderful meals on boards .... especially the fresh fish.

01 Dec 2014 00:00 UTC   Lat/Lon: 21° 58.51 N, 033° 52.65 W

DTF: 1613.8 NM   Distance (last 24hrs): 165 NM

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

We really do love this!


..  there's obviously somenthing wrong with me ... when I decided to do the ARC again this year ,considering we were only 4 crew on board  I promised myself that I would stay away from the northern route, which is the shorest, and follow the squarerigged path, going south until as they say 'the butter melts' . But if the weather keep changing like this the butter will never melt! Here I am again on the tough northern route beating again the wind and waves, same day as last year ,with thank goodness the  conditions are  better, at least there is a bit of sunshine . The difference is that even the organiser World Cruising , probably for the first time in the ARC Rally history had suggested that the northern route was the right one to take. Only my friend Alberto is nearly, around 20 miles ahead of us. We we not aiming to really race but of course in the end everyone on board is trying their best .The excitement of ocean sailing gets to you every time ... wow we just caught a fish  the first one ,even at this speed ... we all happy ...Vale

Hi my name is Carla and I'm a crew member of Milanto, and I'm very proud to be on board. when Valerio the skipper invited me to join the race I was so happy because I imagined a smooth sailing downwind towards the warm of the Caribbean following the southern course, and yes of course I thought of racing but also of enjoying the cruising. I was so convinced of this idea that I  did not even bring  my winter sailing gear with me, lucky for me  I found in Las Palmas a sport shop so invested in new boots and a waterproof top ......  because we ARE in the middle of north course beating for more than 4 days now against the wind and the waves but more then happy to be here.

The competitive racing spirit  that is inside Valerio and me is stronger then I thought. in fact after a wrong decision at the beginning of race which made us loose one one night in a  NO WIND zone it was hard on us but we were repaid out by seeing  so many of dolphins leaping around us.  Valerio had to decide to go and chase the wind, even if that meant staying north -one advantage is that it is shorter- to try and reach, and even beat, the rest of the fleet. It does not means that we are not enjoying the race but on the contrary we having a great experience,  feeling  the Atlantic Ocean in all its aspects. Today we caught also a nice mahi mahi so tomorrow we will have  a great  fish dinner .Today homemade lasagna is on the menu , then we have the rest of the day  to enjoy.

 

Latest info at   29 Nov    00:00    : 23° 37.63 N, 027° 53.17 W

distance to go 1958 NM  sailed so far 757 NM    speed   8.1 knots     last 24 hours   172 NM  estimated arrival 09 Dec 02:24