If anything to do with our expedition isn't just right (weather, overnight temperature, equipment operation, food, entertainment, communications, shore leave - to name a few items) the crew tends to grumble about how the harsh reality of conditions aboard contrasted with “the brochure”: Charlie's pre-voyage representations of gourmet food, plain sailing under clear blue skies, evenings of multi-media entertainment, occasional light duties, folk dancing on the foredeck and a generous daily grog ration. We even manage to blame him for the current North Wales-like conditions of torrential rain and high winds.

 The truth of the matter, of course, is that we've enjoyed some great sailing, good companionship, pretty fair food (disclosure of bias: this is written by the cook), a variety of entertainment including a couple of excellent movies and several excellent "surprises" brought along or devised by crew members. In short, we're having a terrific time.

The equipment-caused and weather-extended stopover in Bermuda has given us the opportunity to catch up on sleep (something in very short supply with a two hours on/six hours off watch system at night); sort out, clean and generally re-prepare Neroli; and – yet again – update our fresh provisions, with fruit and veg at the top of the list. 

Our routine - when sailing - is to have breakfast around 8:00am, invariably consisting of fruit salad and cereal. The fruit salad is fresh for as long as we can keep the fruit going, and then supplemented with tinned and/or dried (e.g., prunes). On the first leg up from Antigua it was extremely hot and humid and the fruit ripened and rotted with astonishing speed. It's still warm here, but not excessively; we're optimistic we can carry some fresh fruit most of the way.

While variation is usually good in diets, a routine is simpler to manage, and so we don't vary the breakfast formula much except for the occasional treat of bacon and egg if conditions permit. Eggs are coated in vegetable oil and stored in the bilge and so far have survived very well.

Lunch follows a formula as well: bread (frozen for the first couple of days out and then made on board) with ham and cheese from the fridge, dried salami, and a large salad or coleslaw. The former gives way to the latter when the lettuce and/or tomatoes run out or go off; cabbage survives very well, and grated with carrots (reasonably robust), some red onion and garlic, perhaps a bit of apple and some raisins is a good complement to the sandwiches. When the ham and cheese run out we move on to tinned chicken, tuna or salmon livened up with a bit of onion, mayo and anything else we can find.

Dinner is where we get some variation. We cooked 15 meals (7 different ones) in St Lucia and froze them in foil containers or ziploc bags. To make the best use of space, most didn't include the carbs. One or two did (e.g., lasagna) and will be saved for days when conditions discourage any cooking other then getting a dish into the gimballed oven. We ate three of the freezer meals on the way up to Bermuda, but that means we have 12 still ready to go, requiring only some pasta, rice or potatoes to be cooked alongside the reheating. 

The freezer supply includes the aforementioned lasagna, a pork and chorizo stew with apricots, boeuf bourgignon, chicken posole, spag bol, and risotto with duck confit. If we have a fast passage from here we might be able to use mainly freezer meals. If it's a medium or slow one we'll be cooking from mainly or entirely packaged ingredients. Examples of those include pesto chicken (jar, tin and packet – no fresh ingredients but still tasty) and the already-mentioned cabbage-bacon-potato bake.

Alcohol consumption aboard is modest – sometimes a beer at lunchtime and usually one before dinner. We’re carefully hoarding two or three bottles of wine. Charlie has also sprung a bottle of champagne on us at a suitable moment of briefly low morale.

Anyway - enough of the food and drink. Here's the weather situation. The low-pressure system is continuing to move through as forecast and we're optimistic that favourable conditions will develop in the next couple of days. Our current plan is to clear customs tomorrow (Wednesday), go on the anchor in the late afternoon and be ready to get a fast start on Thursday morning.