Update from Stromboli
Stromboli comes home
John and Sue Chadwick
Wed 23 May 2007 00:10
We've had a milestone sort of a day today. Passing 1000 miles to go, crossing both 50 west longitude and 30 north latitude and crossing a fold in the chart - we can now see the Azores on the chart as its clipped to the chart table (until now there's just been a load of blue). C had a email from Bev. It was most touching and poignant. Chalky was on watch in the cockpit so I read it out to him from the chart table. Halfway through he drew a sharp breath, sniffed brokenly and blinked hard, staring unseeing, out to the horizon. (I had just got to the bit about Tigers losing to the Wasps in the Heineken Cup.)
To mark so many milestones in one day we've had a lunch of scrambled egg and tinned red salmon on home-baked bread. (With a Heineken funnily enough - which puts our reserves firmly into the red.) Its five days since we've seen a ship and C has been dabbling with the theory that we'd been spun off into some second dimension which contains only us and this sea. R then spotted a vapour trail which has given him something to think over. Fia Tia (our sister yacht) is now 60 miles ahead of us - a tad embarrassing given my earlier remarks - but at least they can 'weather spot' for us and give us an idea of what's ahead. Right now both yachts are heading for Flores - a tiny island in the far west of the Azores group - but this could change if the wind shifts or weather becomes difficult. We're fairly hard on the wind today and there's a lumpy sea so Stromboli's 'digging her shoulder in' and every few minutes we're taking a green one over the bow. Due to the boat heeling over R managed to spill an entire glass of juice up the leg of his shorts at breakfast so when he yelped and stood up there was the somewhat disturbing sight of orange liquid issuing from his nether regions. He went below, changed, got back into the cockpit, sat down and just then about a tonne of spray flew straight into him. He then said a word that neither C or I understood and stomped below again.
Anyway more drivel as it occurs! J, C, R
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