Day 16
Following the rather eventful night, the
next day started off as if nothing had ever happened. Winds were again down to
a pleasant 16 to 20 knots, giving us a decent speed. The sky was still largely
cloudy but we could already make out the first sunbeams fighting their way
through the layer of clouds in front of us. By lunch time at the latest, pretty
much all the clouds had disappeared, resulting in even the most fearsome
rabbits to re-emerge from their hole. The sun has by now become so intense that
we decided to put up the Bimini above the cockpit. With all the seats
comfortably cushioned and equipped with extra pillows, the beige canvas sheet
above our heads and relaxed music running virtually all the time (much to the
disliking of some of the more, say, “elderly” crew members) our cockpit is now
starting to resemble a Mediterranean lounge club rather than the cockpit of a yacht
on a Cross-Atlantic race.
Unfortunately, we had to pay for the
comeback of the nice weather with a sharp drop in winds. From the late morning
onwards, winds started to decrease continuously until, by the afternoon, we
were down to a mere 5 knots. We had eventually reached the low wind area (=
”Flaute”), that we had been forecasted several days earlier. Since there was no
point in just bumping about in the swell and waiting for the wind to pick up
again, we jointly decided to go on with the engine until we would hopefully hit
stronger winds again soon. Before we got going, however, we used the first standstill
of the boat to finally take the much-anticipated swim in the Atlantic Ocean
(actually, before that, we used the
standstill of the boat to have an absolutely delicious “Kaiserschmarrn”). Under
the close supervision of a designated shark watch, we enjoyed a short dip in
the beautiful (but lukewarm) turquoise water – at a frightening depth of 5,500
m.
Once again, the approaching night was
greeted by us with our by now traditional sundowner drinks. To get a better
view of the beautiful sunset we for a change gathered on the foredeck of the
boat, where we enjoyed some finger food and ice-cold drinks (Dieter has gone
soft on the alcohol). For the following dinner, we had Jimmy’s fresh Wahoo
steaks – very tasty!!! – on a nice and summery potato salad. As the plates were
taken back into the galley the stars were again shining brightly above us – a
sight I am sure we will all miss a lot once we are all back home.