Day 18-24 - 99p fix

Carlile Adventures
Mark Carlile
Wed 25 Oct 2006 13:55
The 99p fix and the most frightening thing happened.

There has been quite a bit happening in the last week.

After the rough weather of last week, it was good to have some lighter conditions. There is just some paint work damage from the swinging anchor incident. I am glad to have found that when I did. A hull puncture would have been so much worse.

I got the radio fixed much more quickly than expected. The broken pin on the radio connection was fixed with some household fuse wire and some duct tape. This fuse wire I bought for 99p in a corner store at Limehouse in London with no specific purpose for it in mind at th time. The radio is an essential piece of equipment and I use it every day as the primary way to connect email, get weather reports, primary distress alert, and keeping up with news of the world.

A couple of nights later I had my first fright. Sitting at he chart table, I was methodically plotting my latest position when my world was shaken A bird flew into the cabin at some speed. It just missed my head. Startled, I just about fell off chair. The bird was and was making one hell of a noise flapping about inside the cabin. It must have been disoriented. I was trying to fly through the small cabin windows.

Some 15 minutes passed before the bird stopped on floor exhausted. My attempts to coerce it out weren't working. An hour later, still no success. I decided to try and pick the creAture up. Flashes of bird flu and years of being tormented by Australian attacking magpies raced through my mind. I wrapped my hands with an old towel. By this time, the bird was too tired to move much. I finally picked up the bird and slowly and calmly was able to place the bird outside. The towel was tossed overboard. I spent the next morning cleaning a colossal amount of bird droppings. By the time` I finished, the boat smelt like a hospital. The drama was over.

The rest of the week has been without incident. I have been trying to head south west to pass between Madeira and the Canary Islands. The winds have been still on the bow, so progress has not been in a straight line. I have gone over 700 miles in the week. With an average of over 100 miles a day, I am very pleased. In total, I have now gone over 2000 nautical miles in just over 3 weeks. Last night, the wind has swung around to the North West and I am going fast between 6 and 7 knots of boat speed heading for the Cape Verde islands.

I have been doing quite a bit of reading, and replying to many emails of support. The food has been varied again this week. I have started to split the British Army 24 hour rations. They just have far too much sugar. Here is an example of there contents.

1 x Meatballs and Pasta
1 x Chicken Herb and Dumplings
1 x Vegetable Stock Drink
1 x Chocolate Pudding (sweet)
1 x Orange Drinking Powder (sweet)
1 x Chocolate Drinking powder (sweet)
6 x Fruit Biscuits (sweet)
6 x Brown biscuits
1 x Beef Pate
2 x 10 bar piece of plain chocolate
1 x packet of boiled sweets
Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Chewing gum
.. Too much for 24 hour. Too much sugar. Good if fatigued.

I am feeling well rested and and look forward to being in trade winds hopefully this week. The trade winds should take me fast steadily South.

The days have been a mix of fine weather and showers. Temperatures are about 26 degrees and a little bid humid. I am at the same latitude north of the equator that Brisbane is south of the equator.

That's a very good day from Ingrid, south west of the Canary Islands.

m

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