A good strong easterly brought us fast all the way to New Island. A shift to westerlies and north-northwesterlies brought us to start our way to South Georgia after yesterday’s great afternoon landing.
A night dedicated to sail handling left the ship to welcome the sunny morning with most of her canvas set.
Beam reach, we sail the 25 knots of northwesterly wind, making a good speed often over the 9 knots on an easterly course.
A first day at sea and in good weather conditions represented the ideal situation for a couple of things. First, to finish some repairs and maintenance both on deck and aloft, and then also for starting the sail training lessons. After the last few days of landings and in-between sailing connecting different islands, it is now time to start learning better the ropes and sails we have been told to pull or ease. A process that surely will last and will be developing and growing in us for the rest of our journey while crossing the Scotia Sea and Drake Passage.
By our daily meeting after dinner, the already becoming traditional 8 o’clockie, our progress since heaving anchor from Falklands has been 150 nautical miles, and as the crow flies, there are still 740 nautical miles to go.
Sure, our goal is to reach the remote South Georgia, but aboard the Europa and on the sort of trip that we are making, every moment counts for a whole experience of a voyage; the ship herself, the destination, and how to get there.
A course change, a sail doused or set, a brace pulled—all part of a game to play with the wind, seas, and the time available for a good open waters crossing. It is not just the direction we are sailing or the speed she can reach at a determined moment; it is looking ahead to plan a sailing route that will eventually bring us to a destination. A tool that helps with it is the possibility of having good weather and wind forecasts: from where the winds will blow and how hard they will be, how a low-pressure system evolves, and where a high is moving to. And the information that the prediction is giving today is that we better enjoy to the maximum the excellent sailing we are having since departure… because a high-pressure system moving northeast of us is about to leave soon areas with less and variable winds, while later on a depression is about to pass to our north, probably giving easterly winds, straight from the direction where we head.
Oh well, all part of the voyage, of the experience. All part of the life at the changeable sea, all part of the excitement of sailing in the southern high latitudes, where forceful winds often blow and the seas frequently are high.