Off the coast of west Africa I get to play the barefoot navigator, as I stop wearing shoes and t-shirts to cool myself from the blazing heat. A definite change in living coming straight from cold Finnish weather. First couple days I have to focus on surviving from seasickness as I have a time limit when working inside hot and humid Helena. Every 30 minutes cooking food or cleaning is followed by an hour out on deck, but at very least I´m not alone in this experience as a couple of the crew felt the same way.
However, it didnt take long before everybody became fully immersed in the sailor life. Food went down easier, and working with the rolling was just a brisk walk for all of us. We were smooth sailing.
The north easterly wind gave us a straight course north towards the Canary Islands. Our usual course would always be between 350-005 degrees. Every night, we walk up the stairs past the navigation station towards the helm.
We look up to greet our friend who has been with us everytime after the sun sets, Misses north star, our guide, Polaris. For 4 days straight we follow her thinking it would bring us straight to Tenerife. However, not everything in life can be given to us on a silver plater as we face a couple challenges along the way. One night the mainsail detached from the halyard and folded back down to the boom. It was an exciting moment as we went from a silent library, reading our books, to shouting and waking everybody up for help. We pulled in all the reefing lines and hung around to help as we sent Tomi up to attach it again. Soon we were sailing normally again, but with the winds we were facing the best we could do was a couple hundred nautical miles west of the Islands. We would have to start our dance with Polaris and start tacking eastwards. Right foot step and we are heading southeast for a day, left foot step and we are facing Polaris again. For 4 days we dance under the moonlight and the sunrise towards Tenerife. Not a lot of ground is covered but at least we get a lot of action and enjoy the sea a little longer.
rgds watch 2. Karl & Tomi