Today we went sailing

Mercury-rising
Thu 24 Nov 2005 20:27
 
Last night was the first "full on" sailing for several days, the boat hurtling through the blackness at top speed. Its amazing how brave we are when we can't see a thing! Today has been steady but unspectacular progress. Two days ago we would have sold our souls for any wind, but now groan every time it drops back to 4 knots.
 
Landed two more denizens of the deep; chef failed to find denizen in the fish cook book, so just grilled them. Cockpit gets more like an abbatoir every day.
First mate becoming paranoid that everyone leaves the deck when he comes on watch; must explain watch rotas sometime.
 
Speaking about paranoia, spent best part of the day tracking down suspicious noise; mystery solved when attributed to skipper's worry beads.
 
Skipper has taken to stalking the decks dressed only in a red nylon sarong (sold as silk, but he gets electric shocks from it, which are quite entertaining). Crew taking no chances, and going to bed armed ! Attitudes may change over time, as he is now the most girly thing we have on board! (Must post new crew instruction; do not look up when skipper decending from cockpit).