Sorry for being late; short wave propagation from where I am now is such that communications work best in the early mornings and evenings. Besides, the station of choice (8kHz from Belgium), is out of order until further notice due to a lightning stroke.

For my position today it doesn't really matter if a send it now or in a few hours; we are becalmed. It started to peter out this morning, when I set the code 0 for a few hours. Around noon it was a flat calm, no wind at all, and sails flapping against the rigging. Ultimately, at around 1600 UTC, a very slight breeze came up from the west. I guess from now on we will have to do what ostar is supposed to be: an upwind race. Very gradually the swell dies out as well, and currently we are sailing close hauled with full main and the light HA jib, doing about 1 knot in a west-northwesterly direction. As for my position in the fleet, I can only hope that the others have the same kind of weather and are also not making any gro-chat, und. Mervyn, at the daily hf chat-session, confessed that he, too, had been becalmed all morning. And to make things worse, the weather forecast shows light winds from westerly directions for the next couple of days. We will see.

Apart from the frustration of going nowhere, life on board is not too bad. A copious breakfast of fried eggs, beans and sausages is followed by lunch, and I am already thinking on what to cook for supper. Now that conditions allow, I might as well cook proper meals.

Bart

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