Aniara II - May 27 and the week that follows

May 27   We have now safely arrived in Horta and will have our own internet connection for the next ten days. If you would like to follow Aniara with crew, please use our normal website during this period. When we are leaving the Azores and head for Portugal you will find more reports from us on this site. Please visit us at www.aniara.n.nu .. read more...

Aniara II - May 25

25 May We take our official 24-hour-distance at 13.00, local Aniara-time, and it is almost 3 hours ahead. We can anyhow say that our distance will be around 150 NM for this 24-hour-period and we still believe we reach Horta on Sunday, if the weather conditions not change dramatically. We started slow yesterday afternoon and early night but the wind increased and we are now sailing between 8-10 knots with the wind in from the aft. The only special thing that has happened since last log is that we got a completely new dish served onboard yesterday, Fettuccini á lá Gorgonzola, and it was great new experience. Otherwise there are the same dolphins swimming around (water temperature is now below 16 degrees) and the same absence of fish hooked up on our tackle. If we get no fish. read more...

Aniara II - Aniara May 24

24 May Last evening we ended up in the middle of a high pressure with absolutely no wind at all. We have gone by motor for almost 7 hours during the night. We are now back in business and are sailing again.  There has been a wind shift and we now have the wind from SSE and our heading is 90 degrees, directly towards Horta. There is less than 500 NM to our finishing line and we are more and more sure we will be in Horta on Sunday afternoon. This morning we all got the allowance to use some of the fresh water to wash our hair, so all our rastafari hairstyles from yesterday are now gone.  If you are interested will we get scrambled eggs and bacon for lunch. Sunny out here, temperature 25 degrees in the air and 16 degrees in the sea (Burr!).. read more...

Aniara II - May 22

 22 May We are now more than halfway towards the Azores and have not more than 750 NM to go. We plot our exact position at 13.00 every day, and calculate our speed and make up our plans after that. It´s now just after 13.00 and we have done it again. During the last 24 hours we sailed 192,4 NM, which gives an average of more than 8 knots. This is as long distance as a Stena ferry goes on two return trips Gothenburg - Fredrikshamn. Wind is moderate, 12-15 knots, from North and we are still heading 80 degrees directly towards Horta. Total distance sailed on this leg is 1039 NM and our total average speed is 7,2 knots. Bosse, one of our favorite crew members, asked in a mail about our night watches. We have three 4-hours-watches starting at 20.00. We rotate the watches. read more...

Aniara II - May 21

21 May Everyone told us that we could expect tough conditions between Bermuda and the Azores. We met some of this expectation last night. A wind change of 220 degrees, rain and gusts over 35 knots. I can tell you it was tough, rough and wet out here, but so were we. We have to learn to lean towards port side when walking around, after four days of winds in from starboard we now get it in from the other side. We all have to learn to find new sleeping positions in our cabins. It is far too bumpy to make any advance cooking onboard so we consume a lot of various salads and crisp bread with sardines and garlic (!Yum,yum). We believe we are doing quite OK in the rally and are placed somewhere in the middle of the field, a place we are satisfied with. Another record was set by Aniara. read more...