Quick Update - Wednesday 23rd April 2014

Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Thu 24 Apr 2014 07:45
07:25.15S 106:18.55W

Distance run over last 48 hours: 258 nm

Distance run since Galapagos: 1005 nm

Distance left to run: 1988 nm

Banana Breads made and eaten: 2

Fish caught: 0 - But then again we haven't actually put the line out yet.

Last night we passed the 2,000 miles mark so are happily counting down from
1,999 now. The conditions are still favourable with slight or moderate sea
and enough wind to keep us moving comfortably at a sensible speed. Time is
going very quickly and we don't really feel we left over a week ago. We are
both surprised by how little time we have on our hands each day. Given that
our activity options are somewhat limited by the environment we had lined up
books to read, boat jobs to catch up on and plans to be made. We are making
minimal progress on anything but, thinking about it of course there are good
reasons for this.

Firstly, sleep. We start our watches at 6pm and take turns doing 3 hours
each until 6am. We then change the sails to speed the boat up and have some
breakfast. Whoever came off watch at 6am then has a couple more hours
asleep in order to top up having probably only had around 5 hours overnight.
The morning and evening radio schedules take 30 - 45 minutes but the real
time user is the fact that every task takes way longer than it would on dry
land because of the movement of the boat. Preparing a meal has to be done
without getting everything out otherwise it will fall over, therefore you
are going to and fro over the same ground to put things together. Washing
up is done in short stages because there is only so much room in the second
sink to stack things. Getting something out of the top-loading fridge
requires removing everything on top of the item you want, finding somewhere
to put it all where it won't fall over, take out what you need, put it down
somewhere safe, put everything else back in and hope that you can remember
how it fitted otherwise you will find that the lid won't close and you have
to start again. Same with non-perishable items from the cupboards. We have
mitigated this where we can by placing the things we use most of at the
front or on top but it is interesting to see how much longer basic tasks
take.

We are still eating fresh food, including green stuff which is usually the
most difficult to keep so scurvy is not an immediate threat. The day will
come when it is 1001 things to do with cabbage though.

At some point we will put together a delicious seafood risotto using the
ingredients delivered by King Neptune overnight. Every day one or other of
us clips on and does a tour of the deck to check that all is in order,
nothing catching that shouldn't, lines are not getting frayed nor anything
else untoward. On this short tour we remove the flying fish and squid that
have landed on deck overnight. If, by any chance, we do not manage to catch
a fish then we may sharpen the knives to fillet the very bony flying fish
and deal with the squid and indeed, make a seafood risotto.

Nothing else to report. All is well.