Little green insects

Rhapsode
Fri 29 Oct 2010 13:36
 
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.