Day 6 blog
Halcyon
Rob Withers
Sat 26 Nov 2011 17:47
pos 19:54N 27:52W
Day 6, not quite a week under way.
Bit of a wild life tour today with bigger dolphins, darker and less
twitchy than the previous lot, and a whale. The whale was bigger than
the several dolphins and flying fish we've seen combined. It was even
bigger than Rob.
Flying fish aren't as big as you might have thought, if
you thought flying fish we the size of a large battered plaice. They
flap their fins(?) fast, which, if you expected them to rely on
gliding after gaining speed in the water prior to launch, is quite
surprising. It is like watching a rather desperate young bird try to
slow its plummet to the sea. A little more evolution and you might get
the reverse of a dolphin, that is, an animal that lives in the air but
dips its head in water to breath. If they got really strong, they
could fly anywhere, perhaps carrying a bucket of sea water between two
like a diver carries an air tank. I digress.
We have seen a few more yachts today after not so many for a little
while. They seem to think that they are far enough South to
be safely in the trade winds and are heading West across our more
southerly path. We think they are wrong. Hopefully our belief in
our shore based crew and their ability to sail Halcyon better
remotely than most of the crews can manage in person will not prove
ill-founded (thank you Jo and Jerry).
We bought a man over-board alarm before setting off but it doesn't
work, far too many false positives to be useful. The chandlers are
happy for us to post it back but am not sure they will get us a
replacement before we arrive. Knowing that nothing will be alarmed if
we fall over the side, provides yet further incentive for the
exhibitionist to remain aboard.
Smee (Steve) is fixing stuff again, I don't know what but it involves a
socket set, a spanner, some string and a broad and absorbed grin. This
morning he fixed the broken fridge by deciding it wasn't broken in the
first place - a future in politics awaits.
Other entertainment is easy to find, be it in the pages of a book or
the tired and now well rehearsed anecdotes we sometimes share. Last
night we played a card game which I thought little of and lost. Today
Rob and I were baited into doing head to head planks across the
cockpit. As neither of us are competitive there was never a danger of
carrying on past the point of excessive discomfort, so we called a
truce after 5 very long minutes to the disappointment of the braying
fans.
Eating and drinking
This deserves its own sub heading because we like eating and drinking.
Eating and drinking breaks up the day, it nourishes and it sates, it
makes me happy. If consumption were a religion, Halcyon would be
sailing to heaven. Last night was spag bol, Sarah
needed a little education regarding portion size, but importantly, it
tasted great. Bread baking is James' greatest skill (witnessed thus far)
although his garlic mayo isn't so shabby either and Rob can put away
crisps like Steve can hide them in his beard. I try to make sure there
is no wasted anything. All this consumption comes at a cost, we had to
buy the food.
Lunch is usually bread, finely sliced babe (yes, we have named the
Iberian ham hung in the cupboard under the stairs), cheese and crisps
with a piece of fruit to finish. We delay lunch by eating a packet of
biscuits with tea as the bread bakes. Similar delays affect dinner but
rely on chocolate. Tonight may be steak night, possibly with cous cous
or potatoes, I haven't decided yet.
We are drinking tea too fast (15 bags a day so far, only 150 remain -
please Lord, let our passage be quick) and the cafetiere came off worse
than the floor then they decided to met at speed. Further more, we are
drinking soft drinks faster than beer and we have more of the latter
than the former... I think I have a plan.
Enough of this prattle, we have covered 909miles (about a thousand
of your land miles) and about 1900 to go. It really is a long way to
go without using a plane. Yesterday we noticed that heading north
would take you to the Arctic and south to the Antarctic with no
intermediate land to impede either path. It is quite hard to get your
head around.
Alistair (the "very strong and brave")