Author: Kim Graven Nielsen

“Halfway house” is a term for the zone between prison and normal life and today at 1710 we passed the halfway house and are now closer to Cape Verde than GC. Only 429 nm to go. We are celebrating with one glass of red wine each, in leu of rum, as they did in the old days marine ships. On top, today has been named big shower day – first a dip in the cooling Atlantic sea and then a shower in fresh water. Yes I know – but out her, it is a treat.
We have a fantastic trip, the crew is enjoying themselves. We have entered into the phase where everybody can stand a single watch, which gives us all more time off. We enjoy great meals and the sun is shining. The first 24 hours we had a lot of wind and waves, then it was very satisfactory and now it is too little. And around 1600 hours today we were lying there – still in the water, only going up and down with the swell. So currently we are spending a few of the precious engine hours, hunting for more wind.
Position today is 22 deg 16 W and 019 deg 53 W, the wind is 5 kn from N and sog is 7.1 and cog is 233 deg.
Greetings from all of us.

The crew is doing well and adjusting to the life at sea – reading, playing games and relaxing. We have settled into the routines of the watch, sleep, and meal schedule. Today after lunch, the highlight of the day happened when 10-15 very playful dolphins joined our sail – playing around the bow of the boat and jumping out of the water. All man came on board regardless of naptime!
The rest of the passage is probably going to be slow according to the Grib files (weather files), yet very comfortable, as winds the last 12 hours have been 10-14 kn from behind, which converts into 5-6 kn of speed for North Star. The last 24 hours, we have only sailed 138 nm, which is slow for us. We still have 567 nm to go and a forecast which says 10-12 kn wind from N and NE, with moderate swells. But let us see how it develops. The weather is not easier to forecast out here than on dry land.
Position is 23 deg 49*N and 018 deg 07 W, SOG is 5.8 and COG is 240 deg.

Finally the dream could begin and we sailed out of Las Palmas. Music was playing on the pier, people were greeting us and then we were out at the starting line!Even though we have sailed nearly 5000 nm since we left Scandinavia, it feels thats this is the real beginning of the adventure. We are going to cross an ocean and arrive in St. Lucia 2900 nm away. Now it is night and full moon – it just came out of the clouds and make this a beautiful light night with stars and white capped waves all around us. We are sailing in 20-25 knots of NE wind and is 50 nm from the coast of Africa. The fantastic crew is in a great condition, of course some feels the effect of the first day at sea be we all adapt very quickly and find our sea legs. We are grateful that we have this opportunity to be out here, far from our usual lifestyle, pushing our personal borders. Our position is 26 deg 29′ N and 015 deg 24W – cog is 241 and sog is 8 kn. The wind is boisterous at NE 20-25 kn and we are sailing under the main.
Enjoy your day.
The crew of North Star