Half time
Nous avons passe la moitie de notre traversee ! Il fait tres beau et chaud
aujurd`hui, avec un vent qui reste leger de 12 knts, venant du Nord – de la
depression qui nous separe des bateaux de tete qui ont pris une route tres
haute. On avance tranquillement a 7 knts, en attendant mieux.
Janusz, Inge tente quelques ameliorations sur les voiles, et on a commence
a deployer le code 0 sur le deck pour voir l`etendue des degats.
On recoit les notes de l`ARc sur les infos autour de nous ; un bateau qui a
perdu son liferaft dans le grain d`il y a deux jours, et qui doit flotter
deploye quelque part dans l`Atlantique, un bateau francais non ARC, tres au Nord
de notre position, qui n`emet plus de signal depuis 3 jours (mais tous les
bateaux de l`ARC sont bardes de Yellowbrick tracker, NavSat, Argos et autres
moyens de communication imposes par la direction de course, ce qui n`est pas le
cas des voiliers traversant seuls) - hope so-
On a repeche une dorade coryphene, mais trop petite a 50 cm (!) on l a
remise a l`eau. Et on a vu d `assez pres un orque, a une cinquantaine de
metres.
And some international informations by Craig
Best 2 U
Yv
Merci Yv,
Almost half way – a good time to reflect on life here onboard Blue Ocean,
the temporary floating home of our motley group of nine men who somehow manage
to bridge all language barriers and work together as an effective crew.
Our life essential revolves around our three watch system; yellow, red and
blue watches of four hours each. There are three of us on each. The watches are
led respectively by Darek, Janusz and Inge who are all familiar with Blue Ocean.
We have kept ship’s time at Canary Island time so our watches are slowly
revolving around the clock. Vin, Darek and I make up yellow watch. We watch over
the boat, keeping a look out and making sure we stay on track, between 0400-0800
and 1600-2000. The watches take turns at galley duties; each watch taking
responsibility for a day’s breakfast, lunch and evening meal. Those off-watch
are either sleeping, reading, chatting or gazing off into the distant
horizon.
Blue Ocean is a comfortable boat; we even managed to turn out meals when
the wind was blowing 60knots and the seas were about 3 metres. No pans would
stay on the stove – so we resorted to using the oven. Our supplies are holding
up well; we have more packs of noodles than I care to count and we may soon run
out of milk. But otherwise we are eating extremely well.
Lots of love to friends and family,
Craig