CALISO Saturday 1st December
CALISO
Mark
Sat 1 Dec 2007 13:31
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not sure how long or short this will be as we have
a big swell today left over from two squalls on the 4-8am shift and although now
better, the sea is still a bit messy. at one point we had a wave following
us which when viewed from the cockpit seat was nearly as high as the
bimini! it then slid smoothly beneath the stern and we had a lovely
surf.
so, where did we get to yesterday? there's so
much gone on, i don't know where to start. we had a lazy afternoon wich
included a manicure for lisa and jan with one of these fancy buffers from browns
in chester that brings out the oils in the nails and makes them all shiny as if
you've got clear nail varnish on. becky has to stop biting hers for three
days before she can have hers done. the boys politely declined
theirs. the girls sat on deck and learnt some spanish
grammar and we all read which was followed by our fish supper (it was
friday night after all). the boys wanted to go off down the pub but seeing
as there were various odd jobs to be done (mending a drawer, fixing a toilet
seat, etc.) which had not in fact been done, the girls said they had to stay in
with them. that fish from yesterday's photo we now think may have been a
tuna from the amount of meat on it and the texture. it was delish but we
only managed to eat about half of it between six of us. the girth of it
was tremendous. the other half will become a fish thai curry
tonight. we have decided on no fishing today as we can't keep up with
eating them all. one line did self launch in the big seas this morning,
but we've brought it back in. just before we had our supper last night we
had a funny situation. another fish chose that exact moment to throw
itself on our lure and so mark brought it in - another yellow fin. whilst we
were in the canaries a lady told us the best, quickest and most painfree way of
killing a fish is to pour alcohol into its gils. so bob bought gin for
just that purpose and we cleaned out an old washing up bottle and filled it with
gin to squirt in. well last night the following two things happened at the
same time. mark had finished pouring gin into the gils when we noticed
that "don't worry, be happy" was playing on the cd player and we all looked over
at mark again just in time to see him pouring more gin into the fish's
mouth. probably funnier if you were here, but we all had a laugh!!
we have used about half a bottle of gin on 5 fish!!
by the way dave has just asked if any of us have
been voted out the big brother boat yet? we have had fascinating
discussions for two days now about time. basically we crossed a meridian
almost straight away after leaving las palmas but didn't change out
watches. our arc time reporting has to be greenwich mean time or UTC as it
is now known but seeing as we will cross another meridian today the discussions
started -if and when basically. we all thought it was nicer having it
lighter in the evening rather than in the morning, but we were in danger of not
having the sun even come up until midday if we continued as present. so we
have decided to move our watches back one instead of two hours!!!!! bob's
watch will stay on utc for the midday position and the rest of us basically
won't have a clue what time it is. i don't really understand what
difference it makes if we make it get dark at 7 and have our supper at 6 or make
it go dark at 6 and have our supper at 5!! still it has kept our brain
cells ticking over.
last night after supper our lads decided to put the
2 night reefs in in plenty of time (did i hear for a change?? - nooooooo) and so
with very self-satisfied looks on their faces for being so sensible and
organized they set about their task. all they had to do was put in 2 reefs
right? well, basically same procedure as every night, 2nd reef got stuck
and wouldn't pull through, mark up at the mast, dave off the side (all safely
kitted up of course) and finally they got all three reefs in and then managed to
let one off again. it's just our nightly routine really, half an hour of
pandemonium followed by 4 people going off to bed drenched in sweat. i've
actually brought airing back into fashion and am today airing our sheets - as i
write they are hanging off the back of the boat. i hope the pegs
hold.
what i did want to tell everyone was the difference
between the two boats we have - a night one and day one. in the day the
boat is lovely, sun drenched, everyone lazes around, reads, like being on
holiday almost!! we get to eat together once if not twice a day. the
water laps at the sides of the boat, the sky is blue, the sea is blue, the wake
bubbles round the boat, the sky is filled with fluffy little white clouds with
flat bottoms - lisa says just like the clouds in the simpsons for those who
watch them. basically pretty idylic. then comes the dreaded night
shift. first of all the moon has been getting smaller and smaller since we
have left las palmas - now only half a moon - and it comes up one hour later per
night so last night it was 1-ish. however, because at night all the
horrible big black clouds come out, the moon and stars are often not to be seen
and we are sailing sometimes in such darkness that you wouldn't see a brick wall
straight in front of you. the first couple of nights you could have almost
read by the bright moon. the clouds also bring squalls which even if they
don't contain loads of water, they all seem to contain loads of wind. mark
and i did the 4-8am shift today and had winds gusting up to 36k with a top speed
of 9.2k. the boat is also totally dark except the red glow of the compass
on deck and a bluish light from the instruments downstairs. sometimes you
cannot even see the waves right next to the boat. but thankfully the sun
comes up again at either 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10am whichever you have your watch set
to - and another lovely days starts. if our trip was all days i would be
happy for it to go on and on, but the nights can be a bit eerie and we are all
glad every day when the sun reappears. cannot believe i've rambled on so
long again. told you all about the sat tracker being off earlier.
bye til tomorrow. jan xx
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