CALISO SUNDAY 2ND DECEMBER

CALISO
Mark
Sun 2 Dec 2007 19:24
CALISO - Ultimate Fitness Regime
 
this 1st paragraph is just for the girls.  i've got to tell you about this new fitness spa - Caliso.  if, like me, you have just come back from a week in germany prior to coming to las palmas where all your lovely friends and relatives have fed you 4-5 meals a day with coffee and cake thrown in between, then the caliso spa is for you.  when you first arrive you detox for 1 1/2 days - now you do feel a little queezy, but the stomach shrinking and fasting is worth it.  then they put you on a very healthy regime of fresh fruit, muesli, fresh salad and veggies with loads of fresh fish and you have to drink lots of water.  But, the real difference to other spas is that they offer a 24 hour muscle training.  basically, every second, every minute, every hour of every day you are constantly tensing and relaxing muscles.  whether you are sitting, standing or lying, it makes no difference.  a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg, a toe at least or sometimes even your whole body is flexing at any given time.  my favourite is the bottom toner for obvious reasons for anyone who knows me.  you sit between two things called winches and then put your hands in your lap and just trying to stay in that position is all you have to do.  my trousers were tight when i arrived and they are loose already.  you have to change sides of caliso every now and then to avoid ending up with uneven bottom muscle build-up.  i think that by the time i arrive in st.lucia i will have a toned and svelte body that has not been seen since my manic aerobic days in my 20s and 30s.  the only downer is trying to sleep whilst continuing the training program and for some reason or other there is also every conceivable squeak, bang, rattle, creak, slam, crash and whoosh known to man thrown in too.  i think sleep deprivation must be very slimming.  whatever works.  i think a life on the sea is definately a life me for.  st. lucia beach here i come.
 
ok guys, sorry about that, back to a few facts.  yesterday - saturday- was quite uneventful.  after the stick of previous days the lads refused to even touch the sails and we kept the same two reefs and sail set of the previous day all day.  we passed our third of the way mark and also our 2nd meridian.  hence us not changing our watches again so we are still on caliso time which is at total odds to the rest of the world.  the log entries are quite amusing!!  to celebrate after our fish curry followed by fresh pineapple, we had a bottle of champus.  dave cleverly got his timer working on his camera and with a dob of blue tack, managed to take a picture of all six of us.  attached.  dave also got very very excited as yesterday was the first day of december and he got to open the very first box on the advents calendar which becky brought with her - pirates of the caribbean.  the photo of that will be forwarded in a separate email.
 
as we speak we are just three miles off our first thousand, which is our next reason to celebrate with the next bottle of champus.  then it's 1/2 way, then another meridian, then 2/3rds, then 2,000 miles and then when we arrive - so basically a reason to celebrate nearly every day.  happy days. 
 
our power situation seems to be stabilizing after an afternoon of prodding and poking the batteries and checking every hour.  we dont really want to hand helm the rest of the way - particularly us girls and particularly at night. we are being very carefull with what we use.
 
today has been a typical sunday really, becky went and got the papers early, bob did a full english.  mark was in 7th heaven as he finally was allowed to have some baked beans after days of healthy stuff.  bob and i brought down 20 tins of heinz beanz with us when we came to caliso in september and mark knew this and it's been a daily struggle knowing they were so near but he couldn't have any!!
 
well it's getting dark again - half an hour til bed time as i'm on the 12-4am with bob.  last night i saw 2 shooting stars as the moon didn't come up til 2am long after our 8-12am shift ended and the sky was practically cloudless.  one went right across the sky.  the stars were out in their hundreds of thousands with milky patches which when looked at through the binoculars revealed trillions of stars more.  quite amazing.  we saw another yacht today too but she was heading north so we dont think she was an arc boat. 
 
been very cloudy and wavey again today.  i spent all day just staring at the sea and chatting in between and wasn't bored once.  i must admit though i'm easily kept happy.  hopefully i'll be able to send another one tomorrow.  jan

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