We came round onto our final bearing for Lanzarote at around midday today and will stay on this course until mid-morning on the 18th if the wind cooperates. The swell is giving everyone a chance to find their sea legs - I think that only Alex and me are totally oblivious to it at the moment but everyone is coping extremely well. Sometimes a little thoughtful at meal times and plenty of staring at the horizon in the breeze is going on. I have been a bit lonely in the galley so far on this leg - Ben had a go at supper this evening but unfortunately it rather stopped him from enjoying the fruits of his labour. I have packed them all off to their bunks and taken one of the night watches to get everyone back on form. We have been running a watch system that has Ben and Alex together and Colin with Tash four hours on, four off. I have been on hand for both watches, doing the food and taking the odd single watch when it seems to be needed. This has worked pretty well but it is fairly anti-social as people get very keen on their bunks when they are only off watch for 4 hours at a time. We have been gathering for main meals at the watch changes. but otherwise (apart from me) they are living slightly separate lives. In order to eat the evening meal in daylight (sunset is about 1830) we are running on 0600, 1000, 1400, 1800 etc. rather than 0800, 1200, 1600….. This has meant that we are tending to eat a lot during the day (main meals at 1000, 1400 and 1800) and survive on snacks through the night. Fortunately, there are a lot of snacks (thanks to Vicki for the flap jacks!) so basically I suspect we are all putting on weight. The boys are trying to counter this with a fiendish exercise routine carried out during their watches. Tash is eating about a third of the quantities that the rest of us are putting away so she is fine - Colin and I are just getting fat.
I had better get back on deck, although we have not sighted another vessel for the last 6 hours……(don't worry folks - I can also see all around us from the Nav station and the radar is right in front of my nose so we are not about to hit something….)