The day started with a little extra wind… just as promised by the forecast gods. Before long, it felt exactly like the tradewind sailing Mark and I remembered: wind from the east at 17–20 knots, gusting to 24, and waves of 3–4 meters, with the occasional “just for fun” 5–6 meter monster rolling through.

So naturally, down came the spinnaker. And since the forecast cheerfully informed us that this was our life for the next four days, we packed away all its lines too.
Neli and Mark then poled out the Code 0 and genoa… only for Mother Nature to immediately switch the channel to Perfect Spinnaker Conditions.

Pfffff. “Go sailing,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said.

With the odd gust still charging into the low 20s, we decided to leave things as they were—even though it meant we were now sailing in what I like to call slightly disappointing speed mode.

Fishing report: a couple of absolute sea beasts attacked our lures, and we managed to land one respectable mahi-mahi. He will either become dinner tonight or earn early retirement in the freezer.

Highlight of the day: Neli’s floating classroom. As usual, he went completely overboard (pun intended) with the prep—3D-printed models, gadgets, and mysterious props everywhere. He taught the boys how to make a compass by magnetizing a needle and letting it float on water, and then explained why it works.
It was brilliant, educational and inspiring.
Also: the boys have now put in a formal request to have my homeschool lessons officially cancelled due to lack of awesomeness.

And so day 12 felt not exactly the same as the day before…though with seeing the numbers drop on the distance to finish,

my impatience starts building again. Funny that!