As clean as it gets.....
Phoebe B
Sail Ionian
Fri 26 Nov 2010 20:24
19:53.4N 23:12.1W
Friday 26th Novembre
Seems that the wind conditions continue to be
unfavourable to the west of us so we're still heading generally SW towards Cape
Verde islands. At times sailing at 7kts, and at others having to motor at 5
kts.
This morning was woken by Sue shouting "Fish,
fish!" as the first of two fish stuck. The first one fell off just feet from the
boat and was a 80cm Dorado - apparently good eating. The second took the
lure and then took ALL of the line. Paul was unable to match the fishes strength
and concluded that "it was probably so big that we probably didn't want to catch
it anyway"! Better luck tomorrow.
Today we each had the biggest treat imaginable - a
shower! After 5 days of WetWipes a solar heated shower was the absolute
height of luxury. And being able to wash your hair after 5 days in the
sun.........deep joy. The shower consists of a large, black plastic bag which is
left in the sun for a few hours to heat up and then the exit tube dangled
through the heads window. It may sound a bit Heath Robinson but it worked well
and made us all feel human again.
It was Jonathan's turn to be "Mother" today. Each
day 4 of us take turns to do the watches (2 hrs on, 6 hrs off) whilst the fifth
person (Mother) takes care of all of the teas/coffees, lunch, dinner,
washing-up, cleaning, etc. At the end of a fine day we finished off with a piece
of Italian Panatone cake with cold Ambrosia custard. Unless you've done this
kind of trip it's probably difficult to imagin how good cold Ambrosia custard is
on a hot day at sea!
Tony is the brilliant blogger in our team but
its my turn now (sue). Its the little things that are soooooo important! going
on watch at night is almost like planning to pack for a holiday! What does one
need? well having spent many hours on deck alone I have created my list of
essential items to help the time pass. Needless to say the following items all
go in a bag which I call my EGB- essential grab bag. This is what I have with
me; Lipsalve, water, head torch( Dont like it on my head as it messes up my
hair!) Wrist bands, Qwells ,Tissues , I phone, earphones, watch (dont wear the
watch in case of white wrist marks } mints, leatherman ( just in case) and
of course a note book and pencil, when we were in the med it also included
gloves and neck tie, both items no longer needed. So I have decided that I am
now covered for all eventualities. So at night time now all I have to do is get
dressed,don my life jacket and EGB and I am away!
As for entertainment.....well apart from dreaming
about the fish that got away, actually I think secretly that we all were quite
relieved because we had visions of derado for breakfast ,lunch and diner for the
net 3 days! we are all avidly Reading and ré Reading books. Dan and Paul
have nearly been fighting today to get hold of 'The girl who played with
fire' by Steig Larsson. I have just read Misery by Stephen King, horrid horrid
book I hated it! Anyway with that in mind, and anyone who has read it will now
smile, I decided to cut off Pauls ......hair! And I have to say that now he is
not only clean and nicer smelling but also very smart despite his attempt to
grow a beard.
Enough rambllings from me, shall write again soon.
sue x
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