Tuesday Blog

Fenella
Tue 1 Dec 2009 13:10
The quality of crew life on board Fenella is to the usual high Hutchinson standard blessed as the Rev Morrow  should have said with much good humour and the occassional thought provoking declarations and discussion.
Quality of life is clearly set by the standard of cuisine. Our Sunday menu was not untypical of what we have been treated to and come to expect over the past 9 days. We sat in the cockpit troshing along with the Kite at 8/9 knts.(the word speed is no longer used as any such utterance now results in a penelty the offender having to consume a banana - we have a lot of them)  The Skipper Chef and now we learn aspiring Prime Minister of Arthurs ancient Kingdom of England served up the full traditional roast beef and assorted veg.This was accompanied by a fine bottle or two of the best Spainish red plonk. This standard of food is not a one off. Breakfast the following morning consisted of pan fried fresh Wahoo and Dorado steaks courstessy of the two fishermans friends, with lashings of Bimbo to soak / mop up the juices.Fenellas crew not suprisingly are rapidly developing little round tums.
The Skipper takes his responsibilities for crew moral seriously and has been at pains to ensure that we are entertained and our minds kept razor sharp. He has tried to entice us with various movies, midnight spinaker drills and of course his pet love Suduko. All these have met with limited enthusiasm other than Kite flying. You only have to mention the word Kite or Spinnaker and it attracts four entirly diferent reactions. John, cat like is immediately tripping along the foredeck with a sheet and guy in each hand. Alan pretends to be asleep whilst Tim is more concerned with the height of his souffle than boat speed. The new game we we were introduced to this morning was Torches. Apparently the Skipper had a dream that these had all been abandoned on the dock at Las Palamos even his favourite with the big black knob lens and he spent most of his watch hiding these light sticks in various knooks and crannies about his yacht and person. It was a bit like an Easter Egg hunt. You will be pleased to learn that all hidden torches were found and restored to full working order within 10minutes of our leader saying "GO".