Dear Reader

 

After the comments by the Owner about crew not pulling their weight on the diary, the PC has been prised from his hands and taken away to a quiet corner so that the duty scribe can tap away at the keys.  Where to start, dear Reader?  Overnight the soldier’s wind we had enjoyed for most of the previous afternoon died away such that a tactical decision was made to burn some of our precious fuel in order to continue west.  Once underweight under the iron topsail, it was agreed that the watch bill might be amended so that one person could be on watch during the hours of darkness rather than 2, this meant that potentially a person coming off watch might have 8 hours off duty instead of the usual 6.  Unfortunately, due to the limitation of the Owner’s numerical skills (and he is a chartered accountant!) he became convinced that the rest of the crew were wrong to wake him at 0400 and roundly chastised the messenger and others – and this after he was the only one to benefit from the extra bed time.  However, in the warm light of dawn all was made clear, apologies offered and accepted and harmony once more reigns.

There is a glimmer of hope that we have reached an area of more stable winds, although depressions continue to run across the ocean to the north of us.  So, as we approach our halfway point, a small sweep stake has been set up with guesstimates as to when we might arrive.  As they are not really for public consumption, I will not detail them here but suffice to say they range from 12 Dec to 15 Dec with 2 being within 15 minutes of each other.  The crew now watch each other carefully for signs of skulduggery and slowness in sail trimming duties.

Otherwise we continue to be well and are becoming acclimatised to the heat and humidity of the tropics.  Being well aware of how cold it is at home, I won’t go on about it too much, but when the showers pass over and all the hatches are closed, the conditions down below become a tad tacky.

One final item, AP had his first attempt at bread making today and has produced a couple of recognisable loaves.  The Spanish bread mix is a little cakey in appearance but there is no danger of sinking if one went swimming after consuming a slice.

Signing off, Scribes