Friday 30^th November 2007

 

Life Aboard Emerald

 

We’re now entering day 6 at sea and everyone on board is settling into a nice little routine. The watch system, devised by Mark before leaving the UK, is working well and means that everyone gets their fair share of the favourite and not so favourite watches. The watch teams are as follows:

Watch A            Justine and James

Watch B            Becci and George

Watch C            Mark (Billy no mates!)

 

The watches mean that you are effective ‘on watch’ for the time stipulated and responsible for detecting other vessels in the vicinity and generally keeping an eye on the safe running of the boat. The time slots work out as below and run a three day rotating rota. Cooking and washing up duties are also included – although this varies a bit taking into account the skills and preferences of the crew members.

 

Watch Name     Time                 Day1    Day2    Day3

Forenoon          0800-1200         A          B          C

Afternoon         1200-1600         B          C          A

1^st Dog             1600-1800         C          A          B

2^nd Dog             1800-2000         A          B          C

First                  2000-2359         B          C          A

Middle              2359-0400         C          A          B

Morning            0400-0800         A          B          C

Cook                                        B          C          A

Dishes                                      C          A          B

 

So for example, we are currently on a day 3 which means James and I are currently on watch (it’s 1430), we are on watch again at 2000-2359 and we are responsible for cooking tonight’s dinner (spaghetti bolognaise if you’re interested).

 

Everyone has their favourite watches which they will probably tell you about next week in our ‘Meet the Crew’ section of the blog. Everyone unanimously dislikes the Middle watch!

 

Over the last 24 hours we’ve seems some interesting events. James and I where on the Middle Watch last night and while star gazing (James) and humming along to Prince on my Ipod (me) we ran into a huge squall. Winds rose from virtually nothing to 25 knots gusting 30 knots, the waves were huge and after dropping all our sails to the size of tea-towels we still felt like we were surfing rather than sailing. It certainly livened things up for a while but I don’t think the ‘sleepers’ were too impressed with being thrown around in their bunks.

 

Yesterday afternoon Mark and Becci spotted a flock of birds sitting and resting on the water. We’re guessing that they were migrating birds having a break on their long journey, but it looked like a strange ‘bird meeting’ going on in the middle of nowhere.

 

This morning we have also spotted our first flying fish flitting through the air from wave to wave. We’re hoping for dolphins soon and possibly turtles nearer St Lucia.

 

We are currently cruising along at 6 knots with the fuel cell quietly generating power for us in the background.

 

For those of you who are interested, Captain Pugwash has been learning how to winch.

 

Oh yes, and we caught another fish!

 

Justine