Stowaways
Neroli
Charles Tongue
Tue 2 Dec 2008 17:18
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17:31.20N
31:48.00W
Stowaways............
 Coriander,
Fatima, Monkey and Teddy
The weather
continues to disappoint. It is warm but mainly overcast and the winds are far
lighter than might be expected - so far! We made rather slow progress last night
but this morning reverted to full mains'l and spinnaker and found ourselves
cracking along at 7 - 8 Kn. Our noon day run was down to a disappointing 121 nm
or about 1172 miles from Las Palmas. The wind has now veered into the SE and the
spinnaker has had to be dumped. Nevertheless we are making 5.5 Kn as this is
written. There was a lot of sail changing activity this morning and the skipper
enjoyed one of those very special privileges reserved for yacht owners;
unblocking the heads. Henry gave himself a nasty gash with a kitchen knife
yesterday but Lou dealt with the problem swiftly and efficiently; she is used to
dealing with hairy animals in pain. This has given Henry excuses for not
catching any fish, not washing and not changing his clothes.
We thought
that Charlie, Kitty, Minty, Azzurra and Enzo in particular would like to
see this picture of our stowaways as they are so rarely all to be seen together.
As you can see Monkey has left the fruit netting in the cabin for a while and
has taken the helm of Neroli. He has also put an arm around Teddy who, although
still lonely, is clearly enjoying the attention he is getting. Fatima is dancing
as usual, assuring all of us that her Turkish belly dancers outfit will not
double as a grass skirt at the arrival party in St Lucia and that she needs a
completely new outfit. Coriander, our Basil plant, is standing close by but
wisely not passing comment.
The stresses
and strains on transatlantic crews has taken its toll in the past with a number
finding themselves unable to cope. As you can tell however the crew of Neroli
are taking all this in their stride, showing no signs of mental abnormality
whatsoever.
Tuesday 02.12.08
1715 GMT
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