36 22N 11 10W
Osprey
John Bowering
Sat 20 Jun 2009 17:50
Last night Osprey gained another crew member, a single Swallow that decided he wanted somewhere to roost for the night. Charles was taking the early watch, and 4-5 times the bird entered the pilothouse perching on various bits of furniture. However, a perch within was obviously not to be, as Budda once again showing scant regard for the animal kingdom on exiting his cabin lauched his book onto the top of the wet locker, very nearly decapitating the swallow. So for the rest of the night the swallow roosted on the starboard skuttle, and to show his displeasure at Budda's treatment left a few deposits!
Charles has reclaimed the Terrace today, basking in the blue skies and warm sun. Tea was of course taken on the terrace, and there is not a cloud in the sky.
Osprey is now within 300 nm of Smir, and as such is amongst the commercial shipping lanes. To that end the Radar has been turned on, which certainly keeps you awake giving you an alarm every time a ship enters the set up warning zones. The only problem is the alarm keeps going off on every pass of the radar, so once you have identified the ship, worked out you are not on collision course you still have to sit at the chart table acknowledging the alarm every 10 secs for however long it takes the ship to cross the zone - which is somewhat tedious. So John has spent today head in the instruction manual trying to change the settings.
So, as John makes another facetious comment about Charles's bloggin abilities, it is off to the galley for Charles to cook dinner. Which of course will be eaten Al Fresco on the terrace.