Caliso Wednesday 28th November
CALISO
Mark
Wed 28 Nov 2007 10:29
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Another beautiful day. dave and i have been
on watch together the last three nights and this morning we were on the 4am to
8am shift - my favourite from last time - sun comes up about 7.30 am. we
had an exciting night as we saw an unidentified brightly lit stationery ship and
as we'd been warned about illegal immigrant ships we stayed well clear and
finally decided it must have been a drifting tanker waiting for further
instructions, but it looked like a christmas decoration in the middle of
nowhere. we also saw three airplanes in a row which is so unusual that we
decided they were UFOs. all in all a very exciting shift and then
sun-up. i did my morning exercises standing on the seat and holding on to
the spray hood and was then so full of energy that i scrubbed the cockpit
decks and seats and then got a bacon and egg and fresh bread breakfast on the
go. never seen everyone get up so quickly! becky cooked cajun
chicken last night which was delish! lisa has just used her dry powder
shampoo and has aged about 20 years with her grey hair!! i'm going to have
the first shower today as i feel really gungey (spelling??) after all the cleaning and frying. last time i was one
of the last, along with tony, to have a shower - i think at day 7!! we had
a great sail through the night although we gybed onto a port tack which is not
good for bob and i up in the front cabin but the angle wasn't too bad so we
still got some kip. we are back on a goosewing set-up again now so that
will be better for my afternoon nap.
it's amazing how quickly our bodies have adjusted
to night shifts and sleeping when it's dark. we basically eat at about 6pm
and then the first go off to bed about 7.30pm, except the two on the 8-12
shift. even though it is so early i go straight to sleep. so far
mark has been on shifts with becky to show her the ropes a bit, bob has been
with lisa and me with dave. tonight we change for the next three days and
bob will spend some quality time with his daughter, i'm with mark and lisa is
with dave.
we nearly...... caught our first fish yesterday -
my squid - queenie is her name and she's bright pink - was the first lure to be
tested and she came through with flying colours but mark and bob failed to land
her - at least we saved queenie. she's out for the second time
today. they normally only bite in the evening. it was quite a big
yellow finned tuna by the look of it. better luck today. becky was
so sure we would catch a fish that she was against getting chicken out of the
freezer! today we will get rid of some of our salad stuff and if we don't
catch a fish we will open a can of tuna!!
well, i think that's about all our riveting
news. we are all having a great time. caliso is lovely and she sails
the waves splendidly. this morning at 5am staring at the waves, lit by the
half-moon and just listening to the water sounds i thought how happy i was and i
think that just sums it up. i am trying to get the others to add to my rantings
- might have more luck today. jan xx
Mark here. We may have made a tactical error
heading so far south but our weather info is for more consistent trade winds
south of 20N. Unfortunalely just about every other boat has headed further west
before they drop south. We will see.... A tactical masterstroke or last at the
bar in St Lucia. Trade wind forecast is good for the next week or so which is
great news for everyone this year.
Fishing taking up some serious time after the
dissapointment of our lost yellowfin tuna. We have two lines out and a cook book
open in the galley.....
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