CALISO MONDAY 10th December
CALISO
Mark
Mon 10 Dec 2007 12:45
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we had a beautiful sunny day yesterday - what a
relief - no one really wanted to do much except sit and relax. we also had
a quiet normal night - main up, starry skies, shooting stars, much flatter seas
and no foulies!!!! only needed a fleece and left cushions on deck.
how can two nights be so different? the sunset was truly astounding and we
all said it had to be in our top five ever. see photo which doesn't do it
justice as the whole sky was red/pink and the clouds left and right and it went
on and on. had chilli and rice for supper and a bottle of bubbly to
celebrate all the missed celebrations. today will be hot. yesterday
i burnt my back - can't believe it as i'm normally miss health and safety
nagging everyone else to drink their water and put on suntan lotion. no
one can understand it as i wasn't sitting there long and certainly not
sunbathing - maybe because we'd had no sun for 3 days.
we've just passed a canadian boat on the way to
barbados and had a little chat with the as we flew past. they left las
palmas on 17th november already and just want to arrive before xmas. they
only had one small sail up. one guy and two girls it appeared to
be!! lucky chappy. we also passed a spanish boat during the bad
weather and had a vhf chat with him with lisa and becky practicing their
spanish.
forgot to mention that also during the bad weather
we had an e-mail mayday from the arc and mark plotted their position to being
about 60 miles north of us - broken mast - 3 people - mark called falmouth
coastguards on the sat phone but thank god they had already been picked up and
were safe. funny moment, it must have brought all sorts back from 2 years
ago and also the worry of those poor people and the tiredness and our horrible
storm, i had to have a little cry. mark said later he felt very moved
too. anyway, they and all others with problems that we have heard about
seem all to have been rescured, so fingers crossed those still in that horrible
front will also be ok and through it soon. we are still playing ducking
and diving with the low and keeping south and doing everything to avoid any
further contact with it. will hopefully find out after this next send and
receive that the bastard has moved north and is now out of the
way.
we are down to 521 miles to go and are still
hopeful for thurs/fri depending if we keep our wind. we crossed 2,000
miles mark in the night. mark and i were on the early 4-8am shift and had
a gorgeous sunrise and saw dolphins - not bad for a monday morning. we did
spare a thought for all those poor souls on the M25!
i have just had the most fantastic shower on the
planet - probably didn't use more than 2 litres of water - took about 15 mins
standing in the shower with conditioner in my hair to get out all the
knots. took another 10 minutes once i was finished to pick up all the lost
hair! still it was nice and flat and i had the shower hatch open so it was
all rather nice and i know feel like a human again. lisa has just had her
shower and washer her hair (2 weeks and 2 days she has just told me) and also
feels fab. her turn to open the advents calendar and she's just
eaten a snowman. it really is hard to even think about
christmas. sure once we arrive with all the decorations up in st. lucia we
will feel more so.
short disclaimer: the crew found out that
mark had promised to do the rest of my night shifts and washing up shifts if i
said nice things about him, but the crew now insist that i also say how
brilliant they have been or i will have to do twice as many night shifts.
Not easy keeping them all happy! but, of course, bob and dave gave
invaluable help in the tricky situations and us girls have been keeping them fed
and hydrated and cleaning and pulling the occasional sheet (rope!), so well done
us too. phew! close call that one. not sure if my
journalistic credibity hasn't suffered a fatal blow here (not that i ever had
any!!)
becky has been sending messages in bottles - two so
far - see next lovely picture with her dad - she is doing reike on her bottle
before throwing it over!
think that's about all - can't believe i'm boring
people with our personal hygiene issues, but there it is. we are all sweet
smelling today - everyone else had a shower yesterday. i blew up the lilo
- blue and white stipes - so we are the bees knees now. right, that's it
until tomorrow.
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