Day 6: do you have any whiskey to trade??

(Written on the night of day #6 but fell asleep before pressing send) After days of +25kt winds and big waves making the boat feel like a washing machine, we’re faced with the opposite. Almost too little wind to sail! The wind has dropped to about 10kt, which makes it really hard to sail. The sails start flapping, the boat speed plummets to nearly halve and it feels we’re stuck in the water. Hard to believe how we go between these conditions so quickly. In the morning we most likely will put up the spinnaker. We don’t like to do it when only one of us in available (like during the night) or when we can’t see squalls coming our way. The thought of having to face one with the spinnaker up…. But on and all its been a great day! The sun was out and bright, we crossed our 1/3 of the way mark, Saskia is out and about, feeling more comfortable everyday and even took a shower today!! On and all, day #6 was full of wins! That’s the thing about such a crossing; it’s a marathon not a spint. So we try to focus on the mark where we are at, adjust to the conditions, do what we can, save ourselves for whats coming and try to keep the spirits high with little marks and accomplishments! Another cool thing happen this morning. It started with an AIS alarm. This means we are in a collision course with another vessel. It seems a small fishing boat was on our path doing 8kt! (That’s sailing boat speed, not motor boat!) They radio us in asking if we spoke Spanish. -Yeah sure, I speak portunhol (that’s Portuguese with Spanish accent and a few actual Spanish words far in-between). What’s going on guys? -Do you have whiskey?? We will trade you some fish for a bottle! -(Poor guys couldn’t have picked a worst boat to cross paths.) We don’t drink whiskey nor eat fish! -Ah, ok, nevermind… Later I realised I still have some home-made vodka I would gladly have given. I’ll save it to the next fisherman in need! If you want to check where we are, head to sailingsaetta.com/where-we-are/ Sailing Saetta Saskia & Miguel