Close hauled sailing in Westerly directions, jibing and tacking from South-West to the North-West and back we are zig-zagging over the Southern Ocean, looking for the promised land that still seems to be far away. We have to wait for better winds to get there. It is cold, there are most of the time strong winds, waves and water coming over from every direction, making life at the Europa not very simple. Several of us got sea sick again and others got a serious cold which makes them cough like fur seals. The cold knocked me down for 2 night watches, extra layers of thermals will have to protect me for the rest of the journey, and there is still merino for the real cold!!

South Georgia is behind us, the many photographs taken will remember us of the penguins, fur- and elephant seals among all the other beauty of the island. Many of us are organizing them on the computer to be taken home, reappearing in books , files or clouds or simply disappearing in electronic drawers.

Meanwhile life on the Europa continues as it used to, people staring at the horizon for icebergs, others on the wheel steering North- West or South- West, putting on extra layers of thermals, filling their porridge cups to the limit or setting sails and putting them down again. In the deckhouse a box of Mars bars, kitkats and snickers are found giving us hope and energy for the time to come.

And there are new horizons in front of us, that is where we want to go, explore what we will find there and then to go further looking for new horizons. So far the journey has been so unique, the feeling of the sea and its crew, the taste of salt, the smell of the ship and the island, we are part of a great adventure!!