Tucanon - Arc Day 5 - Who has time to get bored?

Arc Day 5 - Who has time to get bored?

Tucanon

Dick and Irene Craig

Thu 26 Nov 2009 19:01

Some of you reading this blog probably thought it very remiss of us not to have pappadoms and nan bread with our curry. The nan bread could have easily been made in the bread maker so that was really down to the cook. The pappadoms are a different matter. We don't want to have to heat up oil on top of the cooker and being unable to purchase any of the "ready to eat" variety, we had to go without. I know that one can microwave them but cooked in that manner, they have never been particularly good.

Sorry that there has been a delay getting the daily blogs on-line. They have all been ready for posting at the correct time but we have had a few problems with the email set-up. It should all work properly now and a blog should appear each day from us.

Last night our position was 22º50.500N, 22º50.500W at exactly 22.30. Awsome!

I would have loved to have been on watch when we crossed that point but I wasn't even aware of it until after the event. I had been busy, sleeping.

We passed quite a few boats during the night, both on our port side and our starboard side. Of those that we could see, either on the radar and/or by their lights, some were as far as fourteen miles away from us. One was so close, the folks on board could have dropped in for a drink.

Chris spotted a tiny hole in the parasailor, about a metre from the bottom of the sail and about half way across. It was only discernable when the moon was right behind the sail. Once it became light, the parasailor was snuffed, mended and raised in less than half an hour. What teamwork!

Austin attached his safety line before climbing onto the port sugar scoop to waterproof the covers for the shower unit. The waves have been climbing quite a long way up the steps of the sugar scoop and we believe that this is the cause of water getting into the bilges.

Lunch today is the cook's version of spinach pie. Very yummy!

We did catch a fish today but it escaped. Unless we catch a fish and bring it on board, supper will be fish pie made with salmon fillets and prawns, followed by baked rice pudding.

We passed True Blue with only about 100metres between the two boats, around 11.45.

Loads of flying fish, en- masse, were spotted. What is the collective name, a shoal, a flock, a wing? Answers on a postcard please, to Tucanon S/Y in transit.

We are so lucky on this boat. Chris is giving us personal training in how to use the sextant to identify our position, using the sun and the stars and Austin is giving us personal training in keeping us fit and making sure we complete the correct, daily exercise regime.

Chris has calculated a non-official chart for all boats whose details he has been able to obtain. This includes ETA in Rodney bay for each individual boat, based on their average speed to date, also their unweighted position within the fleet. He is happy to give the information to any of the boats in the rally, if they call him during the SSB "open forum talk time".

Irene