An unusually calm Drake
It's been a quiet morning. Since last night, we've been chasing the wind, finding it at the times and achieving reasonable speeds, then losing the wind completely just a little later. It is 2am morning. Watch handover is in progress and speed came down to bare 2.5 knts. The waters of the Drake Passage are calm. Unusually calm. This voyage may go down in a history as one of the easiest Drake Passage crossings. Wind is projected to change and pick up later on, so we wait for it, ready to adjust the rig again and propel ourselves closer to our destination.
There is a low pressure area forming ahead of us that we were planning to "ride" on it's outer edge but according to the latest weather reports the timing is a bit off and we may actually face headwinds and thus use engines to move forward to maintain the current schedule.
As morning progressed it started to clear up. After many hours of grey skies, today we could finally enjoy a nice sunrise for a short time, before the grey skies returned again and brought us some drizzle, strong enough to appreciate the waterproof gear. The ocean waters remained calm. Winds were favorable propelling us forward with speeds on 6-7 knots. All square sails, except main course, are set, so are the jibs,
staysails and spanker. Fixed mizen topmast staysail has been bent on by crew.
Seabirds are also following the ship although not in high numbers. Black-browed albatrosses and cape petrels are with the ship daily, a giant petrel also made an appearance. As a special treat a pair of royal
albatrosses graced us with their presence today. They stayed with the ship for a while and then they graciously glided off to the vast ocean.
The southern royal albatross is a large seabird from the albatross family. At an average wingspan of above 3 m (9.8 ft), it is one of the two largest species of albatross, together with the wandering albatross.
As we continue our journey to the south, we finalized our mandatory IAATO briefings and continue with remaining biosecurity measures. It can be challenging for many still suffering from seasickness, but
eventually, last person was briefed today directly on the deck to combat seasickness. In the meantime, the crew run morning and afternoon sail training for us, just to get little bit more familiarized with many sails and abundance of ropes on the ship. Work on Europa never stops and while we are learning new things every day, the permanent crew carries out numerous maintenance tasks waiting to be completed, with new ones
coming up daily.
For the reminder of the day the rig setup didn't change a lot. With approaching dinner time, we are anxiously awaiting the delicious dinner prepared by our lovely galley crew Adam and Sasha. The latest weather reports confirm previous findings. As it stands, we are still expected to face headwinds and may resort to using engines. In the meantime we enjoy a nice sailing experience. Ship is rolling a little bit but
nothing too bad, Here and there the sun peeks out from behind the clouds painting the deck and the sails in golden hue. It is getting little colder now. The water temperature measurements indicate that we have indeed crossed the Antarctic Convergence. Europa is officially sailing in Antarctic waters now.
