Peter von Danzig - The night is also a part of the day!

Wow! The beautiful brown haired tough special agent just jumps behind apile of cardboard boxes to take shelter from a burst of bullets. The olddepartment building in which she busted the gangsters drug-deal is burningand about 20 pretty angry Triads try to make swiss cheese out of her body.She……“Hey get up! Time for your watch!“We are 12 people on board, have no autopilot and a lot to do. Changingsails for example is a good thing to spend some time: It takes four peopleto carry the Genoa 1 on deck and to the bow. It is quite an act to setthis 100 sqft beast just to take it down two hours later and replacing itby a double-head (two headsails at once) because the apparent wind justslightly exceeds 16kn. This is the downside of having the luxuriousposition of having the right sail for every. read more...

Peter von Danzig - Morning dawn

After breakfast, I just finished my watch, I ask, what could I do the restof the morning. Out of a lot of useful and not so useful tips, I chose theone to write a small article for the ARC-Blog.Thinking of what to write I remember the one question I often get asked byfriends and relatives: How can you spend three weeks of precious holidayson the Atlantic on a 55ft vessel without seeing anything else then water,water, water and the same eleven other faces? I try to answer thatquestion by giving a detailed explanation of the first four and a halfhours of this still very young day.At 1:45 am somebody wakes my up with a silent singing of “rise, rise” tostart my watch. It is pitch black outside. Not a good time to wake up.Still half asleep I start to get dressed. Peter von Danzig rushes. read more...

Peter von Danzig - Special lunch on a holiday

People in the north of Germany love to eat a dish called „Labskaus“. It isa traditionally eaten by sailors for one obvious reason. All ingredientscan be stored for quite a while without refrigerating. You can imagine itas a mash of potatoes, red beets, fried onion and corned beef served withpickles, pickled herring and a fried egg. Some people might say thatbecause of its pink colour and interesting structure it looks like eatenbefore, but its taste is in my opinion the best in the world. Especiallyfacing uncaribbean temperatures like we have to right now.On Monday we had Lapskaus. Since Monday was a holiday and we wanted tohave something special on this day our cook came up with a veryinteresting variation of this dish. Lacking of pickled herring he justreplaced it by our new “chicken. read more...

Peter von Danzig - Fit fish

These fish really keep us alert. No day passes without fish excitement.Some come voluntarily onboard (see previous blog), the more desirable oneshave to be coaxed and persuaded. We are trailing two fishing lines, areally strong green line and a smaller one on a rod.Yesterday fish alarm on the green line, and the fish put up a powerfulfight! Going at eight knots did not help, we lost him on the last twometers. Tough luck. Line broken, tackle gone.Shortly afterwards alarm on the rod line, and this time we have learnt ourlesson: pointing the boat against the wind, easing the sheets, and gentlybringing him up to the stern. We keep our priorities even in this rally.At the last moment a desperate dive into the deep but to no avail. Abeauty, not quite big enough for the entire crew but a. read more...

Peter von Danzig - Ghosts in the night

The reckless fellow came straight through the companionway! Nils mighthave admired him for his skill had he not been deeply immersed in his bookof stars. The flying fish almost made it into the pantry (according toskips wishful thinking straight into the frying pan …) but then decided toland in an elegant curve just outside the oilskin locker. How to get ridof this stinking little creature?Shortly before Bermuda we were visited by a squid that expired its life inthe cockpit, not before leaving his mark … Sounds incredible, just asskips stories of squids jumping in through open pantry skylights orgathering on the foredeck. Everything seems possible, looks as if we had alucky escape with just a small flying fish through the companionway!No so the unlucky devil entering his personal hell.. read more...