LOG DAY 21

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Fri 25 May 2012 09:13
FRIDAY  24th  MAY 2012
 
Its early now on this Friday morning as we learn of the death of our sailing buddy and skipper
of " Starry Night "  an oyster 82, may he rest in peace,
 
The sun is shining and the rest of the crew are in their scratchers , exhausted from a long night
of doing nothing, just sitting in the cockpit and watching the stars go bye,
We have just 100 miles to Fraial in the Azores , so we should reach there by midnight at the latest tonight,
and, AND , and , we are still flipping motoring,  little or no wind , well not enough to move this 35 ton
boat through the water,
 
Yesterday , THURSDAY 23rd , was uneventfull , everyone seems to be tired, ( could have a lot to do with age ! )
so naps all day , you know something, looking back on our world trip. Donal Mc Clement had it all worked out,
Did his shifts at night, spent the mornings thinking about what we would have for lunch, then followed by lunch,
followed by a nap from 2.30pm to 5.30pm, followed be a large sundowner or two before dinner and then the whole
process started all over again, Of course, there was lots of chatting and stories in between as Donal ( Fats )
and Aileen are incessent talkers, like a sort of verbal diarrhoea,   on and on for ever.
 
Then it was time to make the dinner,
Last night we had a Tuna & Pasta dinner made with some of our new catch, but tonight was a surprise,
rummaging through the freezer, skipper found a small piece of belly pork, mind you it was almost
entirely all fat, so cut off the skin , cooked the remainder in a largish pot, then removed the cooked fat
and small bit of meat, covered it with honey and brown sugar and roasted it with the skin ( to make crackling )
plus lots of crispy " Turkey Bacon Strips "
this was later removed and placed on top of a baking dish full of stuffing and more turkey things
and the lot crisped up under the grill,
Then  added to this, Cabbage cooked in the fatty water ( that what we cooked the meat in ) untill it was
nice and soft plus creamed potatoes, and walla! and we broke our alcohol fast by having a cool G & T.
 
More talking and stories over the dinner and then it was night watch time again,
Aileen did 21.00hrs   to   00.00hrs
D & V did 00.00hrs   to   04.00hrs
Skipper    04.00hrs   to   10.00hrs
 
Have a good day,
thats it ,
 
Signed  :--     Stephen Hyde  ( Skipper )