16.3N 038.51W

Meryon.bridges
Sat 5 Dec 2009 15:27
16.30N 038.51W
 
I am sure that you are all rivetted by our screaming progress across the ocean.  At this end the crosses on the chart seem to march slowly across the paper as I put them there each day after doing all the abstruse calculations which navigation by sextant demands.  Thank goodness we also have Smartarse, our GPS plotter, to keep us on the straight and narrow although this threw a wobbler the night before last.  It is now up and running again.  Its information confirms that we are pretty well exactly half way.  This means that we have about 10 days to run and we are praying that the wind holds up.
 
We have though a serious problem looming - food.  Already we all bread has been eaten and we are reduced to 2 slices of Ryvita each for lunch and the final fig was cut into 4 pieces yesterday.  We have discovered that we have a food thief, known as the Nighttime Nibbler, on board. Suspicions were raised when a square of chocolate was found on the floor by the fridge early yesterday morning.  Then today it was discovered that the sole packet of dried figs, adored by all, had been reduced from almost full to a meagre 5 figs.  Investigations are in hand but the evidence is shall we say lacking, the words slim or thin not being apposite in the circumstances.  The only hint we have is that the medical purser has said that there is medical evidence that those who run out of cigarettes need to eat more!  This may of course be only circumstantial evidence.  A time lock has now been fitted to the fridge and all food lockers taped up. A Tape Measure Test will be carried out in due course.  The sleuths are on the case and we hope to bring news of a some progress in the investigation in our next blog.  We still have the passarel which will serve well as a gang plank.  
 
Shortages may be made up by flying fish which we find on the deck and which the purser has stored against the rainy day which he obviously thinks is coming!
 
We have enjoyed some talking books, in particular Master and Commander and also A Week In September.  John Veals, a typically ghastly hedge fund manager, has given us cause for mirth and has led to the crew being "vealed" on occasion.
 
We are blessed with good weather and evidence is strong that there was more than a hint of the tarbrush in the ancestors of some of the crew.
 
The good ship Ares is holding together remarkably well.  If she goes on like this we will have little major maintenance work to do in Antigua.  Wine, or perhaps rum, and song beckon.  I hope that I am not counting my chickens before they are hatched.