As we wake up, we can hear the wind blowing furiously against Europa’s steel. It was indeed what you would call a rocky night. Breakfast continues to be a tempting activity as few of us manage to have it without spilling from the bowls of milk, juice and yoghurt or worse, have a personal encounter with one of the walls surrounding us. Every movement has to be coordinated and the rule ‘one hand for the ship’ is mandatory if one does not want to cause any damage to himself or ship inventory. Since yesterday night it is no longer allowed to go out on deck without a harnass. Waves are flooding the deck continuously. Scuppers have a full-time job getting the water mass out and the deckhouse windows have been closed from the outside to avoid big waves breaking them. Wind force reaches 9 Bft. Fortunately this weather is only the tail of a storm that has already passed by. Nevertheless, the swells, waves rolling in from all directions show us that we’re lucky not to have been here when the storm struck. In the heat of the after-storm the inner-jib, fore topmast staysail and the main topmast staysail are all damaged.
It is our fourth day on Drake Passage. In the past days the boat has been rocking heavily due to unfavourable winds. There is some passengers we have not seen since we set course for Ushuaia. These unfortunate few have been affected by seasickness in a pretty severe way and they’re being attended by our lovely Florence Nightingale, doctor Ineke. Routine on board continues as always. The galley with unbeatable trio Rensje, Willemijn and Sophie keep on serving delicious sailor men’s food while trying to avoid bruises and kitchen tools from flying around. Crew do their watches, going up and down the rigs, winds ravaging around them and waves washing them of their feet. Volunteers dedicated and fit as they all are, get up to help the crew with their 24-hour-duties.
The deckhouse has become the boat’s main gathering spot; to browse through photographs, read a good book, take a nap, play cards or simply enjoy listening to music or drinking a hot chocolate after the watch. In the lounge today we passed Elizabeth the golden age and The travelling birds. All photos for the photo competition have been received and are shown to those interested. It will be a hard decision to make by the looks of it! The jury will gather to select the winning photos when we get to calmer waters, probably tomorrow, when we will reach the Beagle Channel.For now, weather forecast predicts winds from 35 but slowly reducing to 25 knots further ahead.
December 8, 2008
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