Bernie’s Blog - Day 12 – Friday 3 June 2011

Another day dawneth and after yesterday’s ‘rough and tumble’ a gentle sea caressed us overnight. Everyone is well rested and in good spirits. Another washday for both bodies and clothes. The Skipper has just made some comment of the boat smelling like a ‘place of ill repute’ or similar! We have no idea what he means; what a sheltered life we have led.

With Peter (P1) our Skipper out of the Watch system for the past few days, we are on watch ‘1 in 4’, which is still a very easy workload and means the skipper is readily available and rested to deal with problems that are beyond the person on watch.  Before this trip I was concerned that five would be too many ie amount of stores, feeding, sleeping and, yes, washing up! Also, I thought we would not have enough to do to keep us occupied.  None of those concerns have proved correct.

Green banana trial: The green bananas we purchased in St Maarten on 21^st May (12 days ago) are now turning yellow. Perfect timing. The oranges and apples we purchased are going strong and still in perfect condition.

A great deal of time is spent talking and exploring each other’s pasts, careers, families, backgrounds, interests etc. Always fascinating when you have a diverse crew.  I have overheard today already (and it is only 1100) discussions on diving, house building (in the Philippines), technical issues with chemical tankers, and murder! There is no limit.

Last evening we even exercised our ‘synaptic pathways’ (our skippers phrase!) with trying to remember names from the past the answers to which included: Peggy Lee, Crystal Gale, Rita Coolidge, Jonnie Ray, Guy Mitchell, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Eve Boswell, Lonnie Donegan, Chris Barber, Doris Day, Eartha Kitt, Leslie Phillips.

What was the question?

Last evening’s supper was pasta and pesto with Parmesan – certainly a crew favourite. Takes just 15 mins to prepare, cook and serve and is very tasty as well as providing a good source of energy. The simpler the meal the better; it suits all sea states and is particularly suited to a small crew (or solo) when rest time should be maximised.

At time of writing we have 675 miles to Horta which is itself 1300 miles from Dartmouth. The sea temp is now down to 23.8 and the cabin overnight was 22 so everyone is feeling far more comfortable.

More tomorrow when we hope to report that winds are driving us north rather than east. All is well in the republic of Susan Ayu.