36:04N 39:06W is 0730 local position = 0830 GMT = 0930 BST. Wind WSW F3, SOG
6-7 knots, COG 73T. Blue sky.
Monday morning I tried to slow the boat down a bit from a scary
over-canvassed 10+knots. But late yesterday the wind had all gone and since
then we've been doing just over 6 knots courtesy of the Rev. Two Thousand.
This means that today Horta is still something over three days away, just as
it was on Monday, dammit. Bit of a wasted day really, although I suppose not
to many people have super-productive Mondays, and lots of people also look
forward to Friday, just like we do.
Europe looms closer, and the boys are keen to learn all they can from us. I
tell them that one of the main differences is that, unlike America which is
mostly vast tracts of nothing at all, Europe is quite compact with
settlements much closer together, and lots of well-known places are all
packed squeezed into much more manageable space. I mean, for example,
whereabouts in nowheresville North Carolina does Jonathan live, hm? Cos that's
about there is to North Carolina, be honest, just a state name, presumabl y
just above South Carolina, see? Jonathan tells us he lives about a quarter
of a mile from Kittyhawk, where the Wright brothers flew the first
aeroplane. Ooh. Er, um, okay, praps that's not such a good example. What
about Eric, where does he live? Eric says he grew up on Cold Mountain, from
the film of the same name. Wow. Okay, right forget that, perhaps it's like
Vincent Vega says - the main differences are little things, such as
Macdonald's outlets on mainland Europe don't have Quarterpounders due to the
metric system. But I don't think the boys have seen Pulp Fiction, nor eaten
much Macdonalds. In fact sometimes I wonder if they really are American -
they don't even say "Gee!".
Some pesky dolphins have turned up, so of course the entire crew decide they
can bunk off to the foredeck and take pictures for half an hour. Dolphins,
bah. Blimmin sea rats if you ask me. "They're very intelligent you know,
same size brain as a human". Yeah, that figures - they're mucking about at
the bows for no particular reason as well, just like you lot. Mind you, I
bet they can do more than 6.5 useless knots, so not that stupid. Gawd, I am
in a bad mood today, so I'd better not even mention the Raymarine thing
again. Arg! -and I've just realised I'll have to cook on Thursday instead of
being in the caff at Horta.
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