I can almost smell land....

Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Wed 5 May 2010 01:17
Greetings One and All,
 
Welcome to day 15 of our Pacific crossing. All going well here with not much to report really. We have almost consumed the great fish, which isn't bad going between two of us. I honestly thought I'd be fished out by now but it still tastes great for every meal  ;-)    Lack of variety has resulted in some imaginative recipes, pretty much all of which have been damn fine! We have interrupted it with the odd steak, pork chop and bacon at breakfast always helps. As you probably can tell, too much time on your hands and you soon become pretty obsessed with food and eating (like I wasn't anyway).
 
So what have we been doing? Hmm... believe it or not time just flies by. What with the view, several meals a day, a variety of (mostly) good books and sailing our home towards a tiny dot of rock somewhere in the middle of this vast Ocean. We are now just over 3/4 of the way there with under 700nm to run to Hiva Oa; we hope to have that knocked off in about 5-6 days so it now feels like it is just over the horizon.
 
So what are we looking forward to and missing? Apart from stimulating conversation with someone other than ourselves, it will be good to see land again, just because it's nice to stretch your legs now and again and you can't ride a bike on deck.... It will be fantastic to tuck into a goat curry (a local specialty) and of course swim whenever you feel like it. But most of all, it seems we will have full gloating rights if the e-mails regarding the small fishing competition and our catch are anything to go by. Snippets include: "You bastards", "gloating POM's", "We're going to another island" etc etc etc.
 
Well before signing off, I should mention Sammy's baking efforts (with some Thanks (or not) to Betty Crocket). The Carrot Cake was great (if a little over zealous on the Cinnamon), as were the pizza sized cookies (supposed to make 36, we got 6). Not so good the Cheese/Bacon potato Dauphanoise - maybe someone should explain to Betty that bacon comes from pigs, not soy and cheese sauce is supposed to have something dairy in it. The bread has been variable but breakfast wouldn't be the same without toast! At least the toilet has been given some respite... I threw a 2 day crust overboard yesterday and I pity the fish that ate it, plummeting for the depths it will be! Hopefully it didn't concuss a whale on the way down.... I think we found the problem - it was our Spanish - using bicarb of soda instead of yeast, so we are hopeful of tomorrow's daily brick (I mean bread). Seriously though, it has mostly been good and much appreciated with a cuppa watching the afternoon sun get lower.
 
Hope all's well ashore, Bye for now.