Lost track which day!

Itchycoo
Sun 18 Nov 2018 12:18
So life goes on but wind doesnt! have finally found the perfect sail combination - engine and spinnaker! We have been running the engine for almost 48 hours now, Tuesday was the last time we saw wind above 10 knots, so somewhat tedious but flying the spinnaker does give us some assist and something to do! However today we are 70 miles out from Mindello in a cluster of 4 boats from our class with a lot of interboat chatter going on. Wind is now consistant at 5 knots but right on the nose so might as well sit back and enjoy the ride but think we might be running on fumes by the time we get in. We held a crew meeting and decided that one of the crew has to go to lighten the load all decided very democratically and we will tell the vegetable turner as soon as he wakes up. Luckily the weather is fantastic and lots of topping up the old tan. We have opened the Itchycoo Park spa on the rear deck consisting of sunbeds and showers all made possible by wearing a harness made by cutting up an old lifejacket standing on the swim platform and having a bucket of water chucked at you by your willing crewmates all really rather butch and are thinking of renaming the boat Brokeback Mountain.
The best start to a telephone call home has so far started "Hi mum. Im just crossing the Atlantic, no I dont think I will be round on Sunday." - Ross does lead a very nomadic life.
Competition on the cooking and baking front is hotting up with a chicken and lentil curry with ship baked naan breads leading the field on both counts. Daily disasters continue to mount and the casualties among the china mugs are staggeringly high! We started with nine and now only have 4 complete. Some may role their eyes at the thought of china mugs on board a boat BUT it is a British baot with British standards. Drinking tea out of a plastic cup has never been acceptable we did not bring out 750 tea bags from blighty to drink tea out of plastic cups!!
Our attempts to get a spinnaker track out to Cape Verde have failed so we just have to salvage what we can from the old one for the crossing. However we have quite an ingenious rig we have been using for the pole which gives the old girl a bit of character and will miss it once we get in. Paul has been busy making videos of life aboard IP which we should be able to post once we get to Cape Verde so please contain your excitement until then. So far he has made 4 videos all to the Itchycoo park theme tune which means by the 4 th video it is advisable to mute it!
I know need to e mail the Cape Verde sailing club to negotiate the bar open at 2.00 am which is probably when the first couple of boats of pour cluster will arrival - a party we want a party we shall have!!

I have to go now I have a chocolate and banana pancake waiting

Thats it

Itchycoo Parkers out
Wont that be cool



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