Update by Aurore
18 June 2020 | South Atlantic Ocean
Dick van Geldere
Umnyama updates, by Aurore:
Dear friends in James Bay, St Helena
Even though friends might not be the exact correct word, I don't believe such word exists to describe the particular bond that was built by having shared this peculiar few months being stranded in Saint Helena, and lovin' it, or if some didn't love it as much as some others, at least made, and for some lucky ones still make, the most of it.
It's been one week since we left today. We all admired, and contemplated Saint Helena until our eyes could no more find HER on the horizon thinking of the happy times spent there in our safe bubble from the world. Then we started to look forward into the ocean. It's surrounded by the intense and deep blue of the ocean that we'll continue our voyage for a few more weeks and you all know that feeling that the ocean can bring. For me it's soothing, peaceful and powerful.
Sailors we are, so let's talk a bit about our sailing conditions. One could have believed it might have been boring sailing with one trim all the way but in a week we already tested a few different configurations, genoa + main sail, wing on wing (sorry Alasdair), gennaker solo, Parasailor and in the last couple of days, genoa solo because we encountered some 37 knot gusts during the night squalls and 20+ steady wind during the day. Coming from the SE at first the wind turned to ESE and even some E. The swell slowly built up to 3m for some washing machine moments (but never as bad as on a monohull) and for some good surf up to 12 knots. We're making good progress and are less than 2800 miles away from our destination, having started at roughly 4000 miles. Brian and I are working on our celestial navigation like studious pupils with our pencil, tables, ruler and divider surrounded by various books.
Life is not bad here at sea on Umnyama, and it's even quite good! We haven't tried fishing yet as we left with a freezer full of food (yes frozen food and not ice cream unfortunately) and have already experienced the culinary variety of our provisioning. We have constant musical moments, listening to some Pink Floyd or Philip Glass and sharing our musical tastes but also making good use of the pink guitar, perfecting our skills or just enjoying the music. Sunsets are not to be missed and 3 hour watches give us the rhythm for our days and nights. We're all set for a good journey.
Voilà, happy to share a bit our lives on Umnyama with you today and hoping to hear from you soon!
All our love to you and Saint Helena,
The ad hoc Umnyama crew, sailing and lovin' it!