Day 7
Trippwire
Sun 29 Nov 2009 12:47
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Hello!
All goes well onboard Trippwire. Yesterday we had a
fantastic day, logging over 200 miles and with the record coming from Charlie
who logged 36 miles in his 3 hour watch (i.e. at an average of 12 knots!). The
highlight of the day being breaking the 1000 miles barrier, which
required a celebration at happy hour with a bottle of
champagne.
It is now very hot both day and night, with even
Jennifer getting out of her wooly bear dungarees (oh yes, she does have a pair -
see the biscay photo set!) at night, and everyone else settling for shorts and a
tee shirt. We have been continuing our wash on deck theme, however have struck a
few issues, namely that at 14 knots, the sea always wins the battle for the
bucket....and that was even after Dom spent more than an hour re-inforcing it.
(Please note the Knuckles crew, that is now both a bottle of washing up liquid,
AND a bucket that Dom needs to eat when he gets back!). We are learning by our
mistakes though, and have discovered a bit of a back eddy off the transom that
gives us a plentiful supply of sea water and does not involve a high stakes game
of both bucket and person dunking bucket going over the side!
We have been having significant amout of chat about
when to start moving the clocks on board. On the basis that we do not want to
arrive in the carribbean having breakfast more than 5 hours after the sun rises,
or supper at the equivilent of 2am, the idea is to change the boat clock in
stages. However, when to do this? Based on GMT, the sun rises and sets around 20
minutes later each day, and so now sets at nearly 8pm versus the 6.20 when we
left the canaries. The importance of this comes in the length of happy hour.
Happy hour officially starts at 5pm, and the 'hour' part of it is very loose,
with it really ending when supper is served, which is normally around 30 minutes
before sunset. So, the big question is, is a 3 hour happy hour a good thing for
boat and crew, and just as importantly, all other craft out on the water with
us?!....We suspect that self discipline is not that good on board, and so today
the clocks are going to be put back an hour to compensate. We have yet to decide
which lucky person will have the 4 hour watch!
Now, there is a bit of a theme on board around the
beard growing or not. Jennifer has promised that if I grow a beard, she will not
shave either legs or armpits. Needless to say, I have been religiously shaving
(in a bucket) each day. Charlie on the other hand has yet to have a shave,
inisiting that he will be like zz top when he arrives in the Carribbean. It will
surprise few of those who know him, that it cannot quite (as yet) be described
as zz top, and indeed, even he has begun to grow dissolusioned with progress. I
am sure that you will all join me in begging him to keep the beard, at least
until St Lucia, so that we can at least have one zztop style photo (Please note,
that I have been keeping a photo diary of beard progress...just email me for a
set!)
Aside from that, morale and progress on board are
excellent. No incidents to speak of yesterday unless you count Dom and Carolines
berth being heavily doused in water twice yesterday (one of those being in the
middle of the night)...they are looking a little jaded today! Gastronomy and
food supplies are still excellent, and so discussion about which of Jennifers
limbs would be most tasty have been put on hold for the moment.
Team Trippy, not quite but nearly middle of the
Atlantic somewhere
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