June 3 (Day 5)    Half-Way Home

We reached the half-way point (677nm to go) at about 2am and as it was a cold black night, little celebration took place.  We will rectify that today with a glass of wine, Ben’s Chicken curry, and some brioche home baked by Ems.  We have had good sailing though with 188nm in the right direction yesterday – our best mileage since leaving Antigua. Today the sun is out, the wind is still with us, Corbin is making 9.5kts at times, and life afloat is good. Unfortunately the forecast suggests the wind will come onto our nose, slowing progress and requiring tacking back and forward – adding 50% more distance. So probably another 5 days to go. We are at that stage where we do not want our journey to end but are keen to reach our destinations, ie you.

I can also confirm that we have gremlins or hobbits on board, I think that Ben’s hobbit has been breeding.  And what is the scientific evidence for that conclusion?  I hear you ask. Well we have 3 pieces of convincing evidence.

First. Food keeps disappearing.  Biscuits left open vanish, particularly overnight, none of us have had any so it must be the hobbits. They particularly like chocolate biscuits (cookies for any N Americans). I hope calling you guys N American is not politically offensive – Evan has been giving us ethnic sensitivity training.  And that rather tasty Brie, untouched by any of us, particularly me, is slowly evaporating.

Second. We find no trace of their waste products. You know what I mean, urine, faeces etc.  That’s where they are really clever. They have been hiding their pee in our shower gels / shampoos.  In fact, in any cleaning product.  Again the evidence is clear. My shower gel is lucky to last a month at home. I have been at sea for about 6 weeks now and it is still 7/8ths full.  Same with my toothpaste tube though I would rather not think what they put in there.

Thirdly they graze on bacteria. As you know it is bacteria that gives us and our clothes Body Odour.  Now this is slightly embarrassing but I have been wearing the same sweatshirt for 6 weeks, initially only on cold nights but for the past three weeks, full time, 24/7.  I note that most members of the crew use the same strategy. Some with T shirts. Some even with underwear.  Now all that bacteria should smell but it doesn’t. None of us smell anything. The only scientific conclusion is that the hobbits graze on our bacteria at night.  When I think of that, it might also explain some of our vivid dreams. Let’s move on swiftly.

Preparations for our evening feast are well underway. Tony no doubt will produce some pre-dinner nibbles (he likes his nuts),  Corbin and Ben on cook duty, Evan making real coffee, Ems the bread and Stephen multi-tasking by pressure cooking the tea towels to kill the bugs (strangely the hobbits do not graze them) and making a fine stock at the same time. Delicious.

Our picture today might confuse some. It is a screen shot of our navigation computer, we are the red one in the middle, but you can see all the other ships around us! We do not see many other boats so to see so many ships at the same time is exciting, well ok it is to us, remember we have no TV, radio, newspapers or other more interesting distractions. Still, only 615nm to go.

We all send our love

Stephen