Catch of the Day...
ChilliOyster
Dave & Becky Werrett
Mon 8 Dec 2008 02:42
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December 7th
Position 14.43N 45.41W
Still going well - have motored all night in
light winds, the stud is still firmly in place (we marked it with nail varnish
to check for movement!) the batteries are all now fully charged, Kids now happy
as laptiops and ipods working once more! I got 8 hours of sleep! We
now have less than 1000 miles to go, the sea is calm, We have wonderful friends,
the world is a beautiful place...
Thankyou again
The above is a copy of the brief email I sent to
our "boat" friends first thing this monring, it kind of sums up how we felt
first thing, and the day just got better really. The problems of the last 48
hours seemed to have vanished, the sun was shining, the sea was once again a
mill pond - ok there was no winds but after the few days before I was quite
hapopy to have an easy day! As you see from above I got 8 hrs sleep last night
as Dave let me sleep through my watch, so I woke at 8 and sent Dave back to bed
for a few hours. Jordan was on watch with Dave so he was sat on the back of the
boat fishing. I sat down at the computer to check the course etc when all of a
sudden there was a commotion up top and Jordan appeared in the hatchway
hyperventilating that he had caught a "massive fish - now for those of you that
know Jordan, you will know that every fish is a massive fish! But this time, he
was right, it was a massive Wahu! The noise woke Dave who came running thinking
it was a man over board moment, and together they reeeled it in, losing the gaff
over the side in the process. Now without scales it is difficult to be accurate,
but it was 148cm's long and Dave W estimated it's weight as around 70lbs! I have
attached a picture of the monster on the ARC blog website. It took a while to
die and nearly a pint of whiskey! Some for the fish and some for Jordan who was
still hyperventilating with excitement! It was so big, it was beautiful and it
almost seemed a shame to kill it - but as my fresh meat supplies are now nil we
weren't going to look a gift fish in the mouth. Wilson the butcher did the
honours again, it took over an hour, this one was too big to be done in the
galley so the back deck became something of a bloodbath! There was so much meat
I'm not sure we are going to be able to eat it all, I prepared a huge plate of
sushi - but the wasabi is now running low so it won't be as popular as usual.
After all that excitement, and as there was still
not a breath of wind, we decided it was time for another swim, and so we slowed
the boat - put out the usual lines and fenders, then everyone, (including me,
much to the kids amusement!) jumped off the side of the boat - it was
absolute heaven! Shampoo and shower gel came out in force and we soaped and
sudded before jumping in again to rinse, we even wore items of clothing that
needed washing, you can imagine whow a few fish scales and bllod gets spread
around!. The water situation is now fairly critical, we have plenty of bottled
water to drink - but we are down to the last 10% in the water tanks - we are
using this for washing up and washing hands, cleaning teeth etc But it is so low
- I even sat on the back of the boat with the bigger pans and washed them in the
sea today - I think as this final week progresses that will become the norm.
During the afternoon the boys slept and I made
bread for the first time, not a bad effort and the kids thought it was great. I
served it at dinner with our celebration meal, we were celebrating getting our
problems sorted and breaking through the last 1000 mile barrier!. The meal
consisted of Wahu, poached in coconut milk, thai spices and pineaple, served
with Jasmine rice, bombay potatoes and mango chutney. This was followed by
chocolate fondue with fresh melon (our last one) and pineapple. We all wore
necklaces made of fresh chillies, these had been made earlier by dave W. We had
such a huge bag of chillis on board and they were going off so we decided to
string them up to dry them out - hence the necklaces, you just had to be careful
not to fiddle with your necklace and then rub your eyes... which of course Indy
had to do! The evenings entertainment , hosted by India, consisted of more
poems, this time the theme was supposed to be facing life's challenges but the
poems that were produced, whilst good, bore little resemblance to the theme and
the authors all went off free style! I will write them up over
the next few blogs. This was followed by an ipod request show, with music
ranging from Bob Dylan, Modern times to Dizzy Rascal Dance wiv Me, to Sweet Home
Alabama. We all stayed up much later than we usually do, and a great
evening was had by all. With now less than 900miles to go, the party boat
spirit has returned and we are all planning how we are going to celebrate,
seeing land for the first time and arriving in St Lucia
PS - I reread one of my other blogs tonight ,
written in the wee hours and the typing is appalling! There is no spell check on
this computer and it is quite difficult to write in the dark (you can't put a
light on as it ruins your night vision!) swaying around with th swell - so
I,m sorry if I appear completely illiterate!
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