Weblog 09-04-2020 week 2

It’s been a bit frustrating start to this week with weak and everchanging wind directions that slowed us down on our good progress fromprevious week. That meant lots of sail handling such as wearing the shipseveral times in attempt to get back on a good course for our destination.The life on board continues in the same spirit as the last week. Thereis ongoing work and also we enjoyed a beautiful and sunny Sunday. It wasvery nice just to sit on the deck and enjoy some sunshine and time offwith some games, conversation or a good book. Sunshine is a true moralebooster and we always welcome these moments. We hope to get more of itas the air and water temperatures rose significantly over past few days.Slowly but surely, we are progressing into a milder climate which ofcourse doesn’t mean it is always going to be like that.Earlier in the week, most of the sails were set, trying to catch as muchof the weak wind as possible but the speeds were hovering around 3 knotsand not always in a good direction. In that case we even tried slowingdown the ship. But all this was about to change as we were predicted toenter an area with low pressure and forecasted wind speeds of 40-50knots. As it happens the change came quickly and we swiftly foundourselves on deck taking down the sails and then aloft furlingt’gallants, royals, gaff topsail and fore course in strong winds gustingover 30 knots. As the windspeed increased, we took down even more sails.At the moment, we have the fore topmast staysail, upper topsails, maincourse, the aap (mizzen staysail) and the spanker set. This seems to bethe best rig for these conditions. At the time of writing this blog weare already in day 3 of very rough seas and strong winds gusting over 40knots. There are at least two more days of this weather forecasted.Waves are crashing over the deck regularly and most of us don’t have afully dry piece of clothing left. We take turns at the wheel trying tosteer the ship at close hauled or beam reach course. The ship is healinga lot, sometimes so much that the iPad displaying the course and winddirection changed orientation from portrait to landscape several times.The “old lady” is holding up very well though. Despite the high swell weare able to reach speeds between 6 and 8 knots and progress in the lastthree days has been very good. We hope to keep it that way.News from the outside world occasionally makes its way to us. We canread then in the galley where they are usually posted in printed form orwe read them out loud for everybody to hear during the coffee time inthe wheelhouse. Optimism, laughter and positivity are what we arestriving for and any activity that can bring a smile on our faces isbeing employed. We also use this opportunity to educate ourselves invarious skills. The international crew of Bark Europa is coming fromdifferent backgrounds and there is a long list of specific skills toeach crew member. Everyone can bring something valuable to the table forothers to learn and we try to do just that.Once the sunshine and calmer seas are back, we will be finally washingall that salt of our faces and clothes but for now we are takingadvantage of this low pressure system to propel us closer to ourdestination.Ricky