Secret Crew
Beoga's Madventure
Henry and Marina Lupton
Mon 7 Dec 2009 20:59
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Ok we need to admit to some additional help (??)
along the way.
Ye have all been introduced to Betsie who has
worked tirelessly steering the boat through a variety of conditions. She needed
a little help in the bigger and windier stuff but then that was the type of
steering that we enjoy doing by hand.
Ye also know Hector who sat on his bum for the
entire voyage thank God. He was really backup incase the engine alternator didnt
work and we needed to charge the batteries for other essentials like figurin
where we might be at any moment. so twas good to know hector was sitting happily
in a locker.
Equally lazy was Johnson, the 2.5HP outboard
engine. Hopefully he will get more involved if we anchor in islands over the
next few weeks. In the meantime he seems to have terrorised Cormac on a number
of occasions when he morphed into a lad climbing over the stern rail to
attack him on his mid night watches.
A more contoversial crew member is
Grover. Of similar colour and texture to the muppet he is attached to the big
sock that covers the spinnaker and is supposed to make launching and retrieving
the monster more manageable. I know I couldnt keep a hold of him yesterday when
he decided to jump ship and headed about 50 feet into the air. Cormac has had
run ins with Grover too and has a big blister on his hand where he stopped said
muppet from escaping to the skies on a couple of occasions. Dermot must be
feeding him something on the quiet as he is the only one to tame his notions so
far.
Georgina and Lucinda are our on board culinary
critics. Lucinda is the quiet one and generally keeps to herself. Georgina on
the other hand seems to have a set on me. Older generations gas and fire alarms
simply beeped when smoke was detected. Goergina and Lucinda are far cleverer
than that. In addition to producing and annoying alarm they also tell you that
there is Gas or a Fire. Georgina is the fickle one. Dermot and Marina
produce plumes of spicey vapours while cooking and she doesnt say a word. I pick
up the lighter to boil a Kettle she is howling FIER,FIER, FIER (yes she says it
that way too).
I prefer Lucinda myself.
God I forgot about Annette. She has played a
blinder. She was born of a saturday evening on the quayside by Pontoon Q in Las
Palmas. She cost 35yoyos and takes an age to hoist and retrieve due to her ropey
personality. Her task, should Grover allow the spinnaker to be hoisted, is to
spread herself between the forestay and the mast and stop the spinning
tricks that the Kite is so fond of performing.
So the 13 of us are nearly there. Watermaker
has been flat out this afternoon and sucking lots of air in the process (I
lblame Georgina). 200 miles to go. Lots of thoughts about how we found it . God
Joan has just wiped a bottle of Faustino to use as a rolling pin for Apple Pie
and Quiche. THe inventivness of it all.
Not what to call this new helper.
So we havent quite lost the plot, no cabin fever or
the like but we are starting to look forward a little more. Sabrina gang sent a
few mails saying we should see the Pitons (large peaks on the islands) from
about 60 miles out. THe problem with that is 60 miles is a days sailing. We go
nuts watching the wind chargers in Inverin when heading to Aran. You see them
from so far away and they never seem to get close and then they nver seem to
leave you. Still I expect we have learnt a little patience in the past couple of
weeks.
Some of us saw a huge meteor or satellite or
something burning up in the sky the other night. Bright yellow/orange balls with
a long tail. Must google for stuff falling to earth and see if we were close to
something significant.
Some work to do when we reach the Islands. Tomas
has sourced a new boom for us in Martinique following mails and calls on both
sides of the pond which is great news. My 3 year old niece, Aisling, recently
discovered cellotape and could not understand why it wouldnt work to fix the
broken boom. Trust me we have used lots of tape! Some hatch damage
and a few small bits. Hopefully we can contain it at that for now.
I was hoping to read more along the way. Including
Morgans Christy Columbus book. That will be particularly interesting in light of
my current book 1421 that Maura gave me that shows very strong evidence that the
Chinese were along this route years before the Euopeans. They also seem to have
circumnavigated the globe around the same period. Its
amazing.
Highlight of the evening- we found the Germolene!!
It was hiding under rope in a little pouch on deck. Thankfully its ab-sence
brought some common sense and we starting wearing gloves and being careful with
our knees and knives. I expect it will be in demand once the critters start to
bite us on the islands.
So for those mapping us, especially Eimear's class
in Strandhill, as at monday evening we are at 15:14.442N 57:47.813W . We expect
great geography results from that class this year! OK the censor just looked over my shoulder and
approved this message (and corrected the spelling- hey you try typing in a
washing machine).
Time for one last weather check. I wonder will it
vary from E/ENE 15-20 kts which has been the norm.
Beoga on 16 (and soon on 77 )
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