Mis Amores - Report five: Gone with the wind ...

December 18, 2012Dear friendsYou are probably making your last-minute purchases of X-mas presents and think about potential wishes of your loved ones. We have had only one wish: more wind! Yesterday in the afternoon our dream came true. Since 4pm we are sailing with NNE Bf. 3-4 and we celebrated today 299 mile to go. The galley produced yesterday the best meal ever (for lunch) and the worst meal ever (for dinner). ”Ever” means on this Atlantic crossing. The cook (i.e. me) compensated the debacle today with one of a few jokers left; traditional Swiss Rösti with sliced beef and sauce. In background played the traditional Swiss music. The crew felt good.Yesterday our 185sq.m. gennaker twisted around the forestay. Our crew needed more than an hour to untwist it again. Luckily the ocean swell. read more...

Mis Amores - Report four: it's a paradise?

December 16, 2012Dear friendsFirst of all good news; the ARC boat in need is doing well and they do not require any assistance. We were relieved and wish them all the best!You remember I wrote about going through a trough three days ago? Well, as we went through we thought we entered a paradise! Blue skies, friendly sun, flat Atlantic Ocean… It’s just that this part “flat Atlantic Ocean” means no wind. And in a sailor’s paradise definitely must be windy. A little bit. We are struggling today and try not to use engine as our fuel is slowly but surely coming to the lowest level. But even with our code zero our speedo was pointing zero knots! The Grib data says we will have some wind as of tomorrow but who can wait?Daily activity was crafting. Linda made beautiful paper flowers for each. read more...

Mis Amores - Report three: what a day!

December 15, 2012Dear friendsWe went through a whole bunch of highs and lows in the last 24 hours. The lows concern our friends in ARC that are having less luck that we are. We are currently heading to one of them hoping we can help after a storm they went through and left them with a few damages inclusive two injured crew members. There was no Mayday sent out; it makes us believe that they are still holding well. Our boat is taking good care about us so far and we are grateful for that!The highs refer to us and our board life. Yesterday we have witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets ever seen by any crew member, old and young ones. The pink and turquoise sky and clouds were mirroring in the Atlantic Ocean, so wide and endless. It was spectacular!Today we are sailing in smooth west. read more...

Mis Amores - Report two: we went through a trough!

December 14, 2012Hello to everybodyThe title of this report says it all. In last two days we went through a trough. So the theme for our upper deck crew would be “I am singing in the rain” and for our lower deck team “Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’”. The winds gusting up to 46 knots were very well supportable as we were able to continue our downwind sailing. The lower deck team prepared a puppy theatre theme “Snowwhite” and went to bed early. The upper deck tough guys managed the elements brilliantly! A heartfelt thank you!Today we were able to escape from a few left-over squalls and are enjoying a sunny and pleasant day. For lunch we had a tuna and black bean salad with freshly baked French baguette; for dinner tortilla with chicken filets, peperoni and a special sauce from Croatia called. read more...

Mis Amores - Report one: what a voyage!

December 11, 2012Dear friendsIt’s our 15th day on the Atlantic Ocean. Why didn’t we post any blog until now? Because we are having a lot of fun here!We are sailing beautifully downwind with pleasant trade winds. Each day a new culinary specialty is being produced in our galley. We are also drawing, playing music and singing. All of us; big and small. Every day is different.It wasn’t like that at the beginning. The first 9 days we had a lot of wind and waves, several squalls, and some mechanical issues. Until now we repaired our autopilot two times, generator once, replaced our spinnaker halyard; we have had questions regarding our AIS and our board computer. But since December 6 everything works perfectly. And on that day we had a guest on board: St. Nicklaus visited us during the night. read more...