Honeywell Air Purifier Rattle

21/12 - 13 days - 14'46'N, 38'39'W-780 miles WSW of Cape Verde

Today is 21 and we are in the Christmas week. It makes me think about my friends and family, certainly very busy and ready to buy the last Christmas break. As far as I'm away, here in the middle of the ocean, with 34 degrees of heat!

It passed another day and we made very little progress toward Grenada. The little wind and wind direction make us continue south, where we hope to reinforce the trade winds are. We are down to 14 degrees latitude, there are still 1360 miles to get to Grenada, 2500 km. At best a week in the worst two. For the moment all is well, the crew is recovering from a little frustration and move forward. Yesterday afternoon I took some anxiety along with helplessness, as it is for me to decide what you do but Jof. Walter and I agree that we may present difficult times in the coming days, especially when they begin to finish some food and cigarettes - this could escalate the mood and create tensions. In addition I notice that some people download their own nervousness eating more when in fact you should save. I feel comfortable with pasta and rice so we'll be fine and maybe even better now that we eat junk food. But I wonder how the Jof that does not take a meal without meat, or leggy. So the result is a double challenge: to remain calm and keep at bay the anxieties, and also try to project outward calm and soothe the tensions, as there are. Should be tuned to identify and manage the signs of nervousness.

This morning I saw two birds, perhaps seagulls flying around the boat. I am very surprised to see uccelli cosi lontano da terra: staranno migrando? Solo in due? Saranno una coppia in luna di miele? Chissà. Sono rimasto come ipnotizzato, a vederli volteggiare sopra di noi, nel cielo perfettamente sereno e azzurrissimo. Noi come loro siamo in fondo nelle mani della natura, per navigare a vela alla fine é necessaria una grande fiducia nella provvidenza. Si può avere la migliore barca, fare ampi rifornimenti ma alla fine... se Eolo non ti viene incontro, rimani fermo nel mezzo dell'Atlantico. Per cui, speriamo che il buon Eolo si decida a darci una bella spinta verso ovest!