7-11-2011

Finally a whole night of sleep! There was a nice southerly wind that pulled Guppy along at 6,5 knots. Even though the wind now weakened a little we are still doing great and what’s even better is that it is steadily blowing! So I don’t have to correct our course all the time. This morning there was a lot of ship traffic – three of them came to be close to us, one of which on a direct collision course. I called on the radio to ask if they saw me and was answered ‘Yes, no problem’. Ok , I thought, all is fine they can see me… Ten minutes later it was still on a collision course and close enough for me to be able to read its name with my binoculars. That was much too close and they called me to say so and tell me to clear out. ‘How about you alter course?’ I asked. ‘What? We?!’ came their answer. After a short silence they said ‘Oh, Ok. Yes, we will change course’, and the huge ship finally gave way and went around me. Naja… This was just like a car driver asking a turtle to get out of the way… Besides that, the only other event today was a buoy drifting by, the second one in three days! What are those things still doing here? All they do is drag plenty of old ropes and other kinds of trash with them. Lucky for me they haven’t caused me any problems as they floated past me at a short distance..

Laura