23:57N 17:50W

Tales of Amok's Adventures
Mike Jones
Sun 27 Dec 2009 22:27
Evening All

Just started new night watch and enjoying the peace that accompanies it. Pandora aka Mary Bryant has been very talkative this evening and has now taken to her bed to dream of Cornish pasties and tin mines. Toby does a tour of the deck before he goes to bed (dear lad) and asks me if I am up for the upcoming watch (??) which I find faintly amusing. One night I shall say "no, what're you going to do about it?".. sweet of him to ask though.

We had an eventful Christmas Day, in that we ended up having roast Chicken (as it wasn't a turkey) and boiled rice. A strange combination I hear you cry for a Christmas Lunch, but it was all we wanted. The kids took to their beds early on and when Toby got up, he was thoroughly confused as he couldn't work out why his Dad was offering him chicken and rice for breakfast. I mean, we have eaten some strange things onboard, but never chicken and rice for breakfast. When he realised that it was dinner time and still the same Christmas day, he looked even more confused. We have decided to keep the Marks and Spencer Christmas pudding for another day; it's a laugh really as Mike is the only one that likes it. Well, I enjoy the ceremony that goes with it, heating up the brandy, then torching it, but this isn't something which I recommend takes place in 32 knots of wind plowing into Atlantic rollers. Both events are usually exciting enough as individual events rather than combining them. I made hard sauce complete with decorations, to accompany the pudding for just about every one of my growing up years, now every time i have xmas pudding, I feel like something's missing.

I made an amazing chicken soup the next day with loads of vegies and some pasta thrown in. Enough on food, suffice to say the ghastly mal de mer has taken a back seat for now and my appetite has returned with gusto.

Sorry, speaking of eating, I am really pleased with the galley on Amok, it has loads of room and even has some space which is currently inaccessible which I intend to make accessible as soon as I get my hands on a jigsaw. (let's all watch Mike panic here...) We have a corian worktop which caused alot of grief when it was ordered and delivered from the supplier, but is fantastic. The drawers are very deep such that you can store the frequently needed" at the front and the "seldom used" at the back. Our pots and pans which Mike keeps threatening to cull, have their own well made storage under the diesel oven. For some reason, the oven reminds me of a certain pink VW that I know, it takes a little while to get going, but keep out of it's way once its started. Robin and Duncan were responsible for the fit-out, which they did with fantastic results. We are extremely pleased with the results.

Toby gave me a belly laugh this morning, I was reading my book ("We need to talk about Kevin", which is brilliant) when Mike asked me to furl the yankee as there was no wind. For you non-sailors out there, and yes, there are 1 or 2 amongst you, this means to pull the rope on the drum at the base of the jib (i.e. the front sail) which acts to roll it up around the forestay, ie put it away. Usually this activity of pulling the rope in takes around 40 rotations of the winch with the winch handle, so it requires a little effort. Not a lot, but enough to know you've done it. I was aware that Toby was on the foredeck, but hadn't given it much thought. I had only done 1 or 2 rotations of the winch handle and thinking about the benefits to my batwings, when he bellows out "GOOD JOB, MOM". I looked up forward, and surprise surprise, the whole sail had been furled. How the hell did I do that so quickly I wondered?? Little did I know that he had pulled the full length of the furling line in from the fore deck in the time it took me to get it on the winch. of course, now that he's done it once, I'll send him forward to do it for future furlings. Smart ass.

We had a 600 foot ship overtake us this morning with about 1/2 mile separation, I'm glad it happened in the daylight. We called him up on the radio and enquired of his intentions, and he was very clear in stating that he'd keep clear of us. Good Man. Nevertheless, having such a large ship so close makes the heart race even if you have communicated with them. The bow wave is mesmerising both in its size and the power required to create it. I cannot begin to imagine the terror of finding one too close, hence our firm belief in proper watches.

Much to my surprise this morning, I managed to download some weather faxes on the computer via the HF radio. I had heard it could be done, but was really only fumbling my way through. The weather fax machine which produces the same result has been plagued with a bad connection. We had a technician visit the boat 3 times in las palmas and much to my disgust, it still doesn't produce legible faxes. Very frustrating. At least it is not in the safety critical category as the watermaker. As a result of downloading these faxes, I can now advise all of the ice limits in the Baltic Sea. I must find out what time the schedule is printed, so I can download something useful and not ice limits.

OK, ya little lubbers, I must run and check for ships, keep smiling, it keeps everybody wondering why...

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