days 20 to 22, arriving early tomorrow morning!

Panulirus
CR and KN Williams
Sun 17 Dec 2006 21:13
14:24N 59:39W
sent 17/12/06

day 20
Friday 15/12/06

Keith
Quiet day, rather disappointing miles (117) but we did dolly around at
night. I managed to wrap the topping lift round the radar reflector.

Little Guy
I wear my Michelangelo shorts again. Not only are they very educational but
they happen to be very skimpy too, thus maximising my Effective Tanning
Area. Sadly it is raining today, so I don't get to do much tanning. My
shorts get very wet. Fortunately they do not go see-through when they get
wet.

Tom
The second batch of the rolls - the first were baked yesterday after blog
entry - is much better than the first. This time I put them outside in the
sun to rise (when it wasn't raining) and turned the oven up to the max.
Felt quite pleased with myself. However I didn't ask Clare whether she
considered them worth spending half a morning clearing up the Flour
Explosion in the aft starboard locker last week...

Clare
The weather has changed.Clouds interspersed with rain. Most of the squalls
are short-lived with occasional gusts up to 30 knots.Last night I got stuck
in one for 2 hours until Keith came on watch.The wind kept gusting up to 40
knots from the south so I found myself heading for New York at 10 knots.!
His dollying around consisted of taking in the sails to try and let the
squall get ahead of us .Light waterproofs are no good in this rain-soaked to
the skin.

day 21

Keith

Another quiet day in trying to unwrap our new topping lift from the old, I
managed to lose both of them. Tom quite rightly refuses to go up the mast
until we're tied up. Better miles (140)

Little Guy
Keith has hidden my shorts. I wake up to the terrifying prospect of having
to spend the day naked. I get out of bed and see Keith grinning like a
naughty schoolboy. I swap him a beer for one of the last Werther's Originals
and he confesses. To punish him, I wear them again. All day.

Tom
My log for today notes "big rain - Guy sang songs". The weather the last
couple of days has been wet. The rainclouds appear over the horizon behind
us in the west rather like rain in a cartoon - isolated clouds in an often
clear sky with water pouring out the bottom of them. These patches of rain
either pass by to one side or, more usually, straight over the top. They
are also sometimes associated with a change in wind strength and direction
although if there is any pattern I can't work it out. Guy's songs were
quite cheery although I'm sure he never actually worked in a Chicago
department store.

Clare
Tom's rolls were excellent and I managed an hour serious sun between
showers.Guy's shorts look like they have come from the male equivalent of an
Ann Summers catalogue but he insists they were a present-as was the orange
dress he had in Portugal last summer...


day 22 Sunday 17th

Keith
Last full day, winds variable and in wrong direction overnight so a bit of
engine.

Little Guy
I don't know what to wear today. Most of my wardrobe is now either dirty or
not appropriate for the kind of weather we are experiencing at the moment.
It's raining again. Real rain. Proper heavy Perfect Storm downpour stuff. I
end up wearing only my oily bottoms and a woolly hat. It's a bit like having
yellow PVC dungarees. Surprisingly chic in a kind of 80s-retro-gypsy-fetish
way. Jean-Paul Gaultier meets Dexy's Midnight Runners. It's a good look
which may well catch on. Keith is very impressed. Tom is pretending he's
not. Clare is too smitten by Tom's beard to notice.

Tom
My watch last night consisted of almost three hours of torrential downpour.
Too wet to read - I was very glad of Lucy Parkinson-Gadd's ipod. The engine
was running and the prop created an amazing helix of phosphorescence
spinning away behind us. Today has been thus far been spent inside as much
as possible or when on watch sitting under a broken umbrella reading New
Scientist. Never let it be said we couldn't make our own entertainment. Re
Guy's outfit - he looks like some sea-going Huckleberry Finn. Who has been
kicked out of the Village People for being too gay.

Clare
The serious rain has a silver lining.We are all back into oilies which is a
great sartorial improvement for one unnamed crew member.Probably the last
full day.Pork fillet and cous-cous for supper.After 3 nights of pouring rain
hoping to see some stars tonight.We are lucky we had warm, clear nights most
of the way.

JPEG image