SUNDAY 4/12/11 – 1000 MILES, PANCAKES AND A SLICE OF HAM…- 15:44.2N 46:38.0W

First Mate First

Galley Ali here - getting in first for a change.  We now have less than 1000 miles to go to Saint Lucia and for our celebration we intended to make pancakes with afternoon tea.  We passed the 1000 mile marker at lunchtime and it would seem that the skipper has invented a new ceremony.  It seems to involve dropping most of your cheese and ham sandwich on the cockpit sole, attempting to throw it over the downwind side of the boat across the cockpit, hitting the spray hood and having it land on the first mate’s head.  Such was the exertion involved in this manoeuvre that the skipper had to go for a lie down and missed his pancakes.  Fortunately we have the wherewithal to make more and not all the jam was eaten!  Martin took up the cudgels and ate the extra pancake.  It has to be said that I think my old cookery teacher Miss MacNaughton wouldn’t have been too impressed with the presentation, one of the four did actually look like a pancake, the other three were several stages short  of ‘pancakeness’  but we enjoyed them and they say that practice makes perfect.

 Once the skipper woke from his afternoon slumber he rose to the task of cooking a very good one- pot wonder with the dorade that Martin had caught.  It was much enjoyed by all, however the heat in the galley was close to unbearable and we have decided that we will stick to the frozen pre-prepared meals and have volunteers who have offered to defrost them by sticking them up their tee shirts.  We did use the cold cans of lemonade the other lunchtime twice, once drinking the contents but before that we rubbed the cans over our faces and necks.  We had reports that it is snowing in Edinburgh and I have been trying to picture the scene and imagine feeling cooler – sorry folks at home who are all too easily feeling the cold. 

It is now 21.00 and I am on the midnight to 03.00 watch, so I shall try to have a rest before I take over from Alan/Bob at midnight (he is already in his bunk).  Alan and Martin are here in the cockpit too wave to the dolphins this evening.  We had been missing them for a few days…..so since a dolphin day is a happy day I shall sign off and wish you good night.

“Interesting” Night Watches

Most of our night watches have been pleasantly peaceful, nothing to report on changeover apart from meteor activity, and an almost surreal exchange about whether or not a masthead light had been seen (never conclusive). Yachts do not show up well on radar, and they seem to have put off their AIS transmitters, so the issue of sightings is usually moot. Tonight, however, we had a definite sighting and a concern that they are not keeping a good watch. The unidentified yacht came within 1 mile of us from behind us on our starboard quarter (possibly motoring), and it took a course change to leave them clear………………

……..and the usual changeover discussion about radar images of what might be squalls became a little more real, when we had a really heavy downpour accompanied by near 30 knot winds from astern. Not dangerous, and not – we understand – a squall proper as the winds were too light (so it is now officially a “squall let”!). T’will keep us on our toes hereafter, though….

Watergaw