This is a very unusual voyage with a total of 22 souls onboard, of which 9 are Voyage Crew and 4 are cadets. In case you were wondering, only one crewmember managed to join the ship in Trapani and she had intentionally come out by train several days early! Did she have any forewarning about volcanic ash?
We have been really pleased to get updates from crew who managed to travel home by train, car or ferry. To date, no one has yet flown back to the UK.
We left Trapani at 1230 yesterday and are motoring on one engine. We have a long way to go - almost 900 nautical miles. At times we flirted with the fore and aft sails but the wind soon headed us. At present we are motoring along the south coast of Sicily. All has been looking good but SE force 7 and 8 have been mentioned for Sicily and we hope the worst will be behind us.
Those of you who sail regularly will be jealous to know that the 12 to 4 are allowed to sleep in until 1000 when they have breakfast. The daily routine has been tinkered with to make the running of the ship smoother with so few crew onboard. Poor old Pete, the Engineer, is soldiering on alone as the 2nd Engineer did not manage to fly out.
The fishing lines are out but there is no sign of any fresh fish for the Captain's dinner!
Captain Barbara