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Thula - day 16



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.


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