Thursday February 2, 2017 09.00 – Friday February 3, 09.00
09.00 A dark towering cumuloninbus is approaching. I get below, wear my oilskins and come back fast. I monitor the wind speed: 21,5….23,00 . Let’s see how long we’ll manage to stay dry. While I’m still considering the distance of the heavy clouds, Yorgos wakes up. I share my thoughts with him while making a glass of decaf coffee and before I react, he’s out reefing the genoa. His transition from sleep to sailing was 2 seconds; but I’ve seen this quite often.
Strangely enough although the sky is filled with dark  clouds, we didn’t have but a very light drizzle.

12:15 Yorgos checks  the AIS, he sees a tanker  12 NM away from us  named Strofades, ( Stofades: tiny Greek islands in the south Ionian sea, inhabited by one monk!)  We call them on channel 16 of the VHF and talk. They are Greek all right but they were nit in the mood for talking.
We start getting into the daily routine of the passage, reading, cooking, eating,  while  “Stubby” as Yorgos calls the  Hydrovane does all the sailing.
I got two hours of great sleep in the aft cabin and I feel as good as new. Going out  at the cockpit, I find the weather completely changed, blue sky, sunshine  and a lovely breeze.
16.00 Yorgos goes to rest and I stay in charge. We are heading 232 degrees and a new waypoint is set 30 NM off the coast of Santa Marta to avoid countercurrents and high seas.
17.00 We eat the rest of the thai  rice that  I cooked for lunch  and read . The weather is clear.

19.45-21:30 A good night’s sleep under the moonlight: priceless. As soon as I wake up Yorgos shows me a light  at our port side
-” There are two ships, tankers, about five and ten miles away. One is called Perseus (Greek mythology) and the other Lefkada”, he says (Lefkada : Greek island in the Ionian sea )
– “Come on! We should call them to say hello”
– ” Yes, call them and ask if they can see us on their AIS” he says
I call the first vessel on channel one-six (16)
-” Proteus, Proteus , Proteus this is sail yacht Filizi, over” . We hear someone answer but the words are lost from bad transmission. We can only make out the  man’s last sentence
-” Go to channel zero-six”
We go to channel 6 and the officer says he can not see us on his AIS but he saw us on the radar. Very worried by this we thank the man and we call the next ship, Lefkada, following the same proceedure. The thought of approaching the Panama Canal’s  heavy traffic without the   AIS Automatic Identification System gives me the chills. The officer in Lefkada says he does not see us either, but he had seen us on the AIS an hour ago. Before we go check our  AIS unit , the officer of Proteus calls back on channel 16. The signal works now, he says, Filizi is on the ships AIS screen. Good god…
After all this  it’s Yorgos turn to rest.I tuck him in covering him with the sleeping bag, not minding his complaints that he doesn’t need a cover. We  are sailing with 15-20 kts wind, the waves are bigger and Stubby vane is steering
.
22:00 Suddenly a huge wave disorients the vane, the braked helm moves and the vane can’t get us back on course. Filizi turns against the wind and the genoa is flapping. Pandemonium!!!

22.30 As soon as we get things stabillized  we see the huge lead colored cloud  that has appeared in the east.  We take two reefs on the genoa, as the cloud  is fast approaching. We fight with the squall, the wind up to 32 its  hits us strong and the sea all around is boiling. Torrential rain is falling for the next 90 minutes.  Yorgos is hand steering all this time – as stupid Stubby vane can’t deal with the squall.

23:45 The squall is gone but the sky is still cloudy and dark. We put the engine on to charge the batteries.
Friday February 3, 2017
00:30 The engine is on and I’m steering as Otto can’t stabilize the boat. Yorgos is worried about the weather and I  try to make him lie down and get some sleep. The wind has dropped dramatically to 8 kts! but the waves are still big and the sea confused, probably from underwater current.

02:00 Our speed has dropped to 4 kts. The genoa is swinging with the movement and banging empty of wind. Yorgos is up again and again. We hoist the main. The sky is overcast and the night pitch black. The wind  coming from 90 degrees now, is too weak to fill the sails, and the main keeps banging. After 15 minutes we reef the main and stay with the genoa. The wind drops and the sail swings empty of air making a laud noice every time a wave heels Filizi.

03:00 The wind is back and we are sailing with 5-5,5 kts. We celebrate the occasion eating potato chips and comte cheese.  Yorgos sleeps  for 1,5 hour at the cockpit  but on every change of the wind forse, he asks if all is OK. A genuine marine sleep.  I’m tired too and I hold on until he wakes up,  staying alert and keeping a sharp look out for a possible squall.