Cassini blog# 120 Opening salvo from Liz!
Cassini's blog
Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine
Sun 28 Apr 2024 10:53
Opening salvo from Liz! To help bring some more military banter to the boat, Simon and Nigel have allowed an ex Army Royal Signals Officer on board…..(hopefully they don’t ask me to operate the radio😂😂!). Having seen Sarah Payne (Simon’s sister who came out on Cassini on the ARC+) at a Sandhurst (Army Officer training academy) reunion last August, a passing conversation has turned into reality…. I am lucky enough to be here with the opportunity to have another great retirement adventure. First impressions are great; there is plenty of tea and marmite on board, they run a safe and fun boat, and enjoy passing on their wealth of experience. With our token Yank (Coleman) having arrived yesterday, we now have a full crew of six. So with three Brits, two French and one American it looks like we will have some cultural challenges as we confuse Romain and Pauline with our various versions of the English language. However, rest assured, Yacht Cassini won’t be allowed to become Yacht Cazzini. International relations have been going well; until that is, Romain threatened to use the Marmite as engine grease... I don’t think we will have any more Marmite converts, so hopefully there will be enough to keep me going for the crossing! On Friday night we also had the opportunity to partake in some local culture by attending the Royal Naval Tot Club (see previous post on what that’s all about). I attended as a guest of Nina Killick who I know via other sailing friends and is a member; it was great to be able to catch up with her whilst I am here. Simon is also a member so the whole crew were able to attend. At 1800hrs, every day the Club gives a bit of naval history based on something that happened on ‘this day in Year X’, a naval toast, and of course, a Tot of rum. The Club was established to carry on drinking a Tot of Pussar’s Rum when the Navy ended the tradition in 1970. Fortunately Romain and Pauline had been warned by Simon when he introduced his new French friends about the friendly banter they would receive from some of Nelson’s fan club! After dinner at a local Mexican and some Margueritas, we made our way back to the boat on the dinghy (fortunately without mishap!). Today’s tasks included getting more fuel, some spinnaker pole drills, navigation training and monitoring the weather. It feels we are getting closer to departure whilst bonding as a team and starting to ‘learn the ropes’. Having also looked after our neighbours dinghy whilst they took part in a race around the island in their catamaran ’Time Bandit’; they hosted us on board for a beer later in the day. They have been living on board and sailing the world for the last 13 years! Hopefully my next blog will be once we are well underway to The Azores. Liz     |
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