Little green insects
Rhapsode
Fri 29 Oct 2010 13:08
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20 01 N 22 36 W
Despite offering more vegetable peelings to Neptune
our wind dropped yesterday afternoon to the point where the boat was left
wallowing if we wanted to head in the general direction of the CVIs. We could
have gone to Africa or we could have gone to the Caribbean, hurricanes
permitting, but not anywhere to the south. If we pointed the boat south we just
rocked and rolled and got dunked.
"So what?" I hear you say. "You chose to undertake
this voyage so take your dunkings like men." An admirable sentiment indeed and
one I'm sure would have been understood and appreciated by Nelson when ships
were made of wood and men were made of iron. In mitigation the situation here is
more akin to Cap'n Bligh and the Bounty. The crew know we are near land and can
almost taste the local grog so to leave them wallowing under a hot sun getting
regular dunkings would almost certainly have meant mutiny!
In any case, why do you think I bought a new engine
for the boat?
My shorts are covered in salt. I refuse to change
them because then my other pair would get covered in salt. They are so stiff
that they now stand up by themselves. If I whistle they come running as I hop
out of bed. Well, that is a slight exaggeration, they are so salt encrusted that
they come more at the rolling gait of an sea dog.
And I don't hop out of bed. It's more akin to a
grumbling, yawning, stiff backed flop.
There is an old saying that goes something like: if
you want to sail the North Atlantic the best plan is to sail south 'til the
butter melts and than hang a right. Just a minute. Thumb, thumb, thumb. Here it
is, page 847- Hs. Hamilton, Lady Emma; Hogshead; Hurricanes, ah, oh, -
apparently they didn't hang rights in Nelson's day, only men. So how did they
ever get across the North Atlantic if they just kept hanging men?
What I wanted to say is that we are now about at
that butter-melting point but since we are not intending crossing this bit ocean
we'll keep on heading south.
Another porpoise vist this morning and two small,
green flying insects. They must have blown over from Africa.
By the way, Andrew wants to know whether he will be
able to get an orthopaedic cushion in the Cape Verde Islands!
What a sad state we're in.
P, M, & A
Three sorry-arsed sailors.
P.S. The benefit of running the engine all night is
that we now have a tankful of hot water - just when we actually WANT cold
showers.
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