(Translated from Swedish  )

Noon position report April 18th, 2006, at 1200              

24 hour distance: 76 nm
Average speed: 3.2 knots
Under sail: 24 hrs

Other non-logbook data

Position: S 41 dgrs 07 mnts
             E 72 dgrs 46 mnts

Wind: W by SW 1-6 knots
Wave height: 0.1-0.5 m
COG: 70 dgrs
SOG: 1.1 knots
LOG: 0 knots
Air pressure: 1023 mb
Temperature: 14 dgrs C
Water temp.: 14 dgrs C
Depth: Abt. 4,000 m
Weather: Scattered clouds

Lunch: Salmon baked in oven on a salt bed, with boiled potatoes and an Indian yoghurt sauce (Raita)
Dinner: Chicken Garam Masala with rice

From the logbook:

17/4
1320 Foresail set
1800 Let reef out of foresail
2100 Let reef out of fore topsail

18/4
0030 Stoppers on topsail sheets, foresail and mainsail
0330 Let reef out of main topsail
 
Comments:

Easter is over. Nearly half the time estimated for our passage between Port Elizabeth and Fremantle is now up. We have made more than half the distance so we are sticking excellently to our schedule. Right now (at 1230, April 18th), however, the Swedish Ship Götheborg is making no headway at all and it is just the current taking us forward. The sails are swaying as we are slowly rolling in the swell but even that movement is connected to strong forces. These unusual movements are gnawing on our hemp ropes and it is important to discover such wear early. From time to time the helmsman can also feel the swell pressing the rudder and so a strong hand on the steering-wheel is necessary at all times.
 
Our friends the albatrosses are increasingly accepting us. They are sailing closer and closer to the ship and quite often go down to float in our wake. When they descend for the landing it looks as if they are dragging their feet behind them in the water, using them as brakes before they put them forward and land. The landning run is from one to a few metres and the similarity with landing aircraft is striking. In a certain angle - obliquely from the rear and slightly from below - the have a profile reminding one of the old Swedish fighter aircraft J 29 Tunnan (the Flying Barrel) with wings high on the fuselage, slightly drooping. But as soon as they have landed on the surface, they look considerably much more like ordinary sea-gulls, albeit being much larger and with somewhat diffent colours.