Although we have been sailing most off the day, by 10 pm all the square sails were down. The masts look bare and now the huge number of ropes holding it all together become apparent. 

Days are getting longer

While taking the sails down, the decks are covered with piles of ropes, but surprisingly within 10 minutes everything looks tidy again. Most of us wear warm jackets and closed shoes now, even during the day. Air and water temperature have dropped in the last two days, but the days are getting longer as we move further south.

like brave explorers

How would the brave explorers in the old days have known their position? We have practised using the sextant during the last week, and now it was time to measure our actual speed in the old-fashion way, using a speed-log. Emma first gave us an indoor introduction on logging sailing speeds, before heading to the helm. We measured 4.3 knots while sailing, and then used modern technology to confirm our readings.

We were not far off at all, although some of us figured that the GPS was not accurate and that we better rely on the old-fashion speed log.