18:00N 58:22W Motorsailing with genoa 6-7 knots. Falmouth 204nm. True Wind
14knots East, 2m swell. Sunny, some clouds.
So Catamarans are stable are they? Not up a 20m mast in a 3m swell! I
tried (and failed) to rethread the gennaker halyard yesterday. Wind has
dropped a bit but the swell is still rolling. I got as far as the top of
the forestay, bear hugging my new best friend with all 4 limbs. Right, all
I need to do is swing round to the front of the mast (probably possible,
just), and then let go with at least one hand, preferably two, in order to
thread the halyard . No chance - even braced against a strop. So down I
come again - failed! One for Falmouth harbour I think.
I had the 1am to 4am watch last night - not usually my favourite as it's
tricky to get a good sleep either side of it, but last night was great. We
had a full moon and a gentle downwind sail in about 15 knots with a lazy
2-3m swell - very cathartic watching the shooting stars. My own private
party on deck.
But today it's mother watch again for me, which seems to come around
incredibly quickly. This may be my final chance to clinch the bread making
competition which is getting pretty serious now, with marks being awarded
not only for content but also appearance. Rob made a pretty good effort
with one of his loaves yesterday, approaching full marks for appearance but
let down somewhat when you actually cut into it (that and the fact that he'd
hidden the second one in the oven - how can 2 loaves be so different?).
Matt had apparently been basting the top of the loaf to try and get it to
brown better - except he wasn't sure if it was supposed to be egg, milk or
sugar - so he just used all three to be on the safe side.
I seem to have landed myself with cooking pizza for lunch every time it's my
turn. Tried it once just nicking some dough from the bread and it seemed to
go down well -I think they stock up at lunch as they have no idea what the
evening meal is going to be like. Actually to be truthful I have no idea
what it's going to be tonight either! I had the bright idea at the start of
the trip of volunteering for first cooking duty thinking I could use a load
of fresh stuff so it would be easy. That part worked fine - but what I hadn't
thought through was of course that I was bound to get an extra cooking day
at the other end, not so clever!
Hey ho - flour calls.
J
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