a watched pot
Norman G III
Sun 4 Dec 2011 22:17
tonight at 19.40 pm out position is
15 08 51N 46 22 17W
and we are sailing very slowly in light winds on a very bad heading towards venezuela/ st lucia witha very wet and soggy crew. golly and jason wanted a storm and thats what they got albeit only lasted 30 minutes they got fully wet. skip and i watched from inside and monitored the radar and popped up at the last minute to give help and reassurance but all was well
our two crew have grown in confidence over the last few days as we near our destination and can now be heard clicking buttons when no one is watching asnd making rash comments regarding the weather. today both were extolling the virtues of cloud formations and the itcz ( doldrums) to you and me---- funny because they are regurgitating skips own ideas which as we know quite often are bizarr-- so now i have 3 bizzare theorists on the boat. they seem to have lost all logical ability to make simple calculations and prefer to theorise about weather pattens -- we get a forecast very day which is not wholly accurtate but better than them, arrival times in st lucia-- not a difficult calculation based on mileage and historical boat speed over 5000 m iles this year, whats left to eat in the freezer--- just look and most bizzarely of all whos watch is next--- weve been working a rota for 2 weeks its not rocket science.
they all have also become paranoid about certain matters and its not even possible to mention these important issues without frowns and instant defensive behaviuor.
golly is obsessed with the tea and coffee stains in our cups. he knows where nothing is on board the boat dodges cooking duties when he can cleans outside the boat never inside but has assumed the role of cup hygenist and monitor. god forbid a cup should have a small stain on the inside--- out comes the domestos( HE KNOWS WHERE THIS IS ) and the offending stain is removed immediatley bizarre
jason is obsessed with the number of days left to reach the destination. the morning starts with a full analysis of how many miles to go average mileage per hour and a calculation to work out days left and then day of arrival. during the day we can have a 25 % swing in his predictions and if a joke is made about arriving late he sulks and goes to the front of the boat where the egret sits and talks to him.. one wag asked on the email what we were planning to have for our xmas day lunch on board the boat-- a 2 hour stint alone at the front of the boat ensued. bizarre
i have managed to get all to agree that sailing the whole way is best and would win us much admiration among our peers if we could achieve this so this is now our aim. i have also tried to instill a take one minute at a time attitude sail the best course we can and lets judge our performance at the end of the journey. counting down the miles is counter productive and so i have been moving the waypoints just to confuse matters a little
on one of jasons rare forays below decks other than to sleep -- and even now hes considering sleeping above deck- he asked if anyone wanted a drink-- 2 teas and a coffee were the reply. on went the kettle and jason stood next to it waiting for it to boil. as the minutes went by he got more and more pale but stood patiently trying to block out the quesy feelings. enough was enough and after 7/8 minutes he raced upstairs and said
someone else will have to make tea im sick of standing watching that kettle
downstairs went skip who turned on the inverter which lit up the light on the kettle and 2 minutes later hot drinks
maybe now jason has learnt from the trip that in all aspoects of life and especially in sailing a watched kettle never does get hot
on the food front today a little quiet. We caught anothe wahoo but put it back and had a biter on a white and green coloured squid but lost the fish James made sheperds pie for lunch excellent and we then sat down and watched the first 30 minutes of godfather 1 together like being at the movies-- mid atlantic!
tomorrow we hope to have better winds and are 8 miles behing a boat calle felicity j so we are trying to meet up with her at somer time
more tom orrow on our progress
hello today to all our biking friends-- london to paris seems much more civilised than this!!
sleep tight
MG