Days 5 at sea - and more

Time for an update.

We are now well into day 5 of our 3 week crossing to Horta in the Azores.
The weather has been fine, although we would have liked a more SW wind direction.
Wind has in general been from E-SE between 10 to 15 knots. That gives us only a max speed of 5-6 knots and average around 4 knots.
We are on a course of 030 to 040 degrees sailing up to a waypoint
at 25N and 55W. Here we are hoping to find better winds, we might have to go even a little further up north. If we get too far north there is risk of running into gales, so we are watching the forecasts carefully.

Days go by by reading, Ham radio and navigation/weather for Geir.
Grete spends much of her time reading and cooking dinners. She even baked a large pan of Foccatia bread which tasted great.

Been seaching the radio for english news stations. But it looks like they have all closed down and moved to the internet. Our daughter, Synne, has started compiling news into emails, something we are very greatfull for.

It is still very hot onboard. Air temperature is 28-30 degrees and the sea 26C - that means we are being heated from all sides :)
We are sweatting all day and constantly feel like having a shower. But we have to conserve our fresh water supply as we have no water-maker. When we start to smell too bad, we have a quick rinse with soap and water - and it feels fantastic.

As mentioned above, Geir spends much of his time on the radio. Checks in on different Sail/Cruiser nets on shortwave where you can talk to other sailboats under way and get weather reports etc.
He also talk to fellow radio amateurs all over the world. Last night a long chat with Ross (ZL1WN), a friendly guy in New Zeeland, and with Mike (KX4WC/AM) who was a pilot of an airliner flying from Philadelphia to Los Angles - at the time they were overhead Cedar Rapids.
Geir also have a scheduled radio contact (@19Z on 14328kHz) with Ola (EA5/LA2PC) - a Norwegian in his summer home south of Alicante/Spain. So far only a few weak station has been heard from Norway.

Leif Molle (LA3ZH) in Kristiansand is a very faithfull and polite weather-router - and sends us the weather forecast every day
for our area. In addition we download weather info via our shortwave email system called Winlink.

AWOB (All Well On Board)

Grete & Geir