Gwendoline - 16th day at sea

S/Y Gwendoline M - Atlanterhavskryds
06. December. 12.20 UTC.
On bord Lene, Bente, Annette, Maiken, Oliver, Orla og Kim
Position: 14.19.500N 32.48.980W

Yesterday was yet another fine day regarding catching fish - as we had fish on 3 times. The two first times, Oliver was down below deck, so I took charge of the fishing rod - and succeeded in doing everything wrong - so we lost the fish - both times. Third time we got fish on - I patiently waited for Oliver to come above deck - so he could take charge of the fishing rod. He wheeled in a fine but too small to eat Dorado. Gently we unhooked the little fish and sent it back into the ocean - for some lucky ARC boat to catch in the years to come.

We are still doing good speed - though we had a couple of hours doing only 4,5 knots during the night. Right now we are doing 5,9 knots - and we have had several periods doing above 7 knots.

We are steadily doing between 120 and 140 nm per 24 hours since we left Sao Vincente - which is a huge improvement compared to the first 9 days where we did between 80 and 95 nautical miles per 24 hours.

This morning (Tuesday Dec 6th.) I was awoken by a "ALL MAN ON DECK" shout. We are sailing with our butterfly rig ie. we have the large genoa poled out to port and the smaller genoa poled out to starboard. The sheet to the genoa goes through a small hole at the end of the pole, and is subject to constant wear and tear. This resulted in the sheet holding the large genoa suddenly snapped - and the shout for all man on deck came. When I came on deck - Oliver had taken charge of the situation and directed the crew in rolling in the genoa using the furling. He then directed the crew in taking in the pole - and when this was firmly fixed to the side of the boat - he took the second sheet on the genoa and attached it to a winch on the main mast, and the genoa was taken out a little and close to the mast, so the broken sheet could get reattached.

He than directed the work getting the pole out to is position again, and sat the genoa once again. Ten minutes of effective collaboration of all the crew members - under very skilled leadership by Oliver. As captain I felt a bit rendered obsolete - but then again, it is very reassuring having your 19 year old son turning out to be such a skilled relief captain during such a stressful situation, taking charge of the situation and leading the crew successfully to such a fine result - with no harm done to neither ship nor crew.

The heat is taking its toll on everybody now. We are all struggling to drink enough water. As we have water maker water on board - and it is tasteless - as there are no minerals, salts or anything else but H2O in it - it is difficult form some of the crew to drink it. Therefore we have decided, that the crew members who are struggling to drink the water - are allowed to drink only cold water - as it makes it much more easy to drink the water cold than when it is 26-27 degrees centigrade hot.

Last night was fortunately rather uneventful - 3 shooting start - and no ships in sight.

Over and Out from
S/Y Gwendoline M
Atlanten