Miss Malin logbook - November 26, 2013

Last night we received a first logbook entry from Einar on board Miss Malin. Very funny reading that we want you to take part in: Before 06:00. It has just started to get lighter, but the sun has not gone above the horizon yet. During the afternoon yesterday, during the evening and into the night we have had 40-45 knots of wind. With only the mainsail up, and reefed on the first reef, we have still been moving forward at 10-11 knots. Standing at the helm and parrying the waves was not easy, with large waves on the side outside Hierro and strong winds, it takes all the strength to keep the rudder back to not let the 20-ton boat promise up. The waves have been difficult even when you are not at the helm. We have had difficulty sleeping, I just bounced around like a ping pong ball in the cabin when I have tried. 06:00. It is now almost silent. There is gravel in my eyes after the night, I feel groggy from lack of sleep. But Martin is always on, no sign of fatigue, game on, always. We are going to sail. In semi-darkness with full sailing gear and safety equipment, we begin to prepare the gennaker. The big sail then grabs the boat and we head straight for the Caribbean at 6-8 knots. 10:00. Anders and I go off our watch, our position is N.27°12.633, W19°57.332 we make 6-7 knots with the course 230 degrees. Still 2420 nautical miles to St. Lucia. The noodles tasted fantastic for breakfast. The fishing rod is out and the drag is lagging behind the boat. 13:00. Tomato soup with bread for lunch. The soup bags are in Spanish, so I was close to cooking for 16 people instead of seven. It was delicious and enough to fill everyone up. 14:00. We have barely finished eating, I'm washing the dishes when the whistle starts to blow on the fishing rod. From calm to 100 on the crew in just a few seconds. It was faster to get the gennaker down now than ever. We slow down the boat while Giovanni fishes up a small "blue tuna" of 0.6 kg. Tonight it will be prepared as sushi, and eaten as a starter for dinner. 17:00. The wind has increased during the day, we now have perfect course and speed with our gennaker. Our position is N.26°48.790, W20°58.140, the speed is 9-10 knots SOG, the course is about 260 degrees. It has been a perfect day in every way, nice sailing, fishing luck, and nice chat between us on the boat. 17:30. The wind died for a few minutes, the gennaker was completely empty, no wind at all. A few minutes later, the wind strength came back. Now we are sailing in 8-10 knots again. Very strange. Giovanni and Martin scratch their heads over the weather. "It's hard to plan when the new forecasts don't match yesterday's. If we are unlucky, there will be a belt of calm in the middle of the Atlantic in a couple of days. Some boats are aiming to go north, which is very much north. The others will choose to go south to avoid the still belt, which is also very much south. Whatever you choose, it will be a much longer sail in distance than going straight on, but it should go faster anyway as in the middle there is the unpleasant windless area. Fortunately, we can get new weather files from time to time so we can plan the sailing accordingly. The best thing is that we are sailing so much better than our sister boat Lady Mila. We have a margin of 33 nautical miles, which is good, as we have only sailed about 430 nautical miles since we started. We are also doing well overall, currently in fourth place out of 19 boats in "Class A", our boat group. This is the boat group where the biggest boats compete. In first place in our group is Diva, an X-Yacht 612. Of all 272 boats, we are now with Miss Malin in 26th place. Our sister boat, Lady Mila, has changed her course and is sailing towards us where the wind is better. We will see which of our boats will be the first to finish, there is still a long way to go, but I have a good feeling about Miss Malin. (: (NOTE! The rankings are from ARC's competition jury that a couple of times a day emails out the results, I know that the rankings are not correct for those of you who check via Yellowbrick on the internet.) Just before sunset, we took down the gennaker, not for the sake of darkness but because the wind turned a bunch of degrees. We took the opportunity to change course from 260 degrees to 240 degrees. We are still sailing 8-9 knots. Shortly after taking down the gennaker and a few minutes before sunset, we took the group picture that you see below. Now we are sailing straight into the sunset, a sunset that is one of the most beautiful I have seen. One of many fantastic experiences out here on the Atlantic, we all sit dumb with admiration in the cockpit of the boat. A photo of the sunset is attached. At the keyboard and with best regards, Einar Halldin moresailing.se at 19:15 UTC on November 26, 2013 PS. Just before I was about to send this email, we pulled up another tuna, about the same size as the last one. Now we have a whole dinner of fresh tuna!