Little Pea's ARC 14 Blogoramma - BRIAN IS BACK!
Littlepea
Tue 2 Dec 2014 16:09
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20:54.8N 36:15.2W
Now playing: Shaddy's Back - Eminem
We're now starting to make more progress south, and
we can certainly feel it on board as the heat rises day by day. Yesterday was
our first full sunshine day, so we took advantage and relaxed a little whilst
Ben conjured up some more culinary delights with meatballs in a tomato and white
sauce being a particular favourite. We also took advantage of the favourable
conditions to enjoy our first "sun downer" of the trip - a couple of G&Ts.
Party over, and we were stacking the washing up on deck, when a flying fish came
out of no where, crossing the cockpit. Hitting a pile of tumblers it sent them
flying conveniently landing in the washing up bowl. However, we were now left
with a fluttering fish on the deck, being chased by a somewhat squeamish Jags.
After much commotion, the fish was tossed back into the water and thanked for
its help in the tidying up process.
When night fell, squalls lined up on the horizon
and hit us throughout the night. Although not as strong as the squalls we
experienced in 2012, they carried with them a lot - and we mean A LOT - of rain.
Periodically, the on watch crew member would grip the wheel, taking control away
from Beryl, as Little Pea was propelled down the increasing swell whilst being
lashed by buckets of rain water. Although no one got the shower gel out this
time, it washed all the salt off our clothes and skin, leaving us
refreshed.
The sun rose, creating the most amazing of sunrises
(although yet again, we forgot to photograph it) and after breakfast we were
joined by a pod of small whales. Exactly what type of whale, we don't know -
they kind of looked like a fat dolphin and only about 12ft long - but we are
sure that the pod included Brian the Whale who frequented our company back in
2012. Overjoyed at the reunion, Ben inadvertently throws all of our spoons over
board joining the knife, fork, saucepan lid and Dave the Drone which have
already seen a watery grave... Maybe by the time we get to St Lucia, Brian the
Whale will have a whole set of crockery and some more toys to play
with?
***STOP PRESS***
As we were writing this blog, disaster struck! We
appear to have lost our GPS feed to our on deck navigation systems. Thankfully,
we have a plethora of tablet computers and phones with navigation apps on them
as well as a good old fashioned sextant. Time to remember how to navigate
by the stars..
Daily stats for today:
Max
Boat speed = Couldn't see the speedo through all the
rain
Number of Reefs = Nil
Maximum Gust = 38kts
Number of Flying Fish = numerous -
including the suicide bomber fish
Number of Whales = 4
Amount of Rain = Enough to desalinate the Dead
Sea
Advent calendar highlight = Mike found Wally and is
now looking for some red and white striped socks.
As ever, please do keep you emails coming in to littlepeasailing {CHANGE TO AT} gmail {DOT} com where
our shore team will pick them up and send them directly to us out here in the
Atlantic!
Jags, Minkey, Ben and
Mike |