05:49.13S 108:47.66W Tuesday 28th June Half way

Zoonie
Tue 28 Jun 2016 19:15

Today the 28th June we are half way across and on day 15 of the voyage. To celebrate I am going to attempt to make flapjacks, thus following in the hallowed footsteps of many cruising ladies before me. I say attempt because of the way Zoonie is moving at present.

Imagine running (keep up now, she’s doing 5.9mph!) down the pavement beside your nearest main road and rolling from side to side, so your shoulders almost come into contact with the ground. That is Zoonie’s motion at present. So this could be interesting. Thank goodness the cooker is gimballed!

A few days ago Rob said “Come and look at this Barb”. Spinner and Pantropical dolphins ha6 broken away from their team activity of fishing and were streamlining Zoonie’s bow. Just as playful and agile as their Atlantic counterparts they inspired one to call to them and cheer them on in their joyful antics.

That night I climbed into the moonlit cockpit to check on things and felt I was intruding on Zoonie’s relationship with her surroundings. My efforts to tweak her heading back on to course failed, she seemed to know where she was comfortable on the silver shimmering ocean under her quilt of stars.

Another time she was bowling along beautifully over the sun sparkling sea and as I entered the cockpit I could see, in my mind’s eye, bearing down upon us from the stern a fine, white hulled square rigger under full sail, such as Montague Dawson used to love painting.

Another distortion of the mind is on the Chartplotter. 3,600 miles is reduced to 6 inches and Zoonie is similarly reduced to a pasta bug, crawling across in search of its next meal. This little pasta bug is now halfway across the screen, which is very pleasing.

The other bugs are in decline, unless they have buried themselves in another food bag to lay their eggs. Yesterday we found some more in a pasta bag that had been slit underneath and sellotaped shut again?! Rather than throw it all away I cooked it and as the little bug…s floated to the surface I scooped them up and put them down the sink.

We also emptied that cupboard (again) and sprayed it with RAID so I think we might have got rid of them. But we have to stuff ourselves with cooked pasta for the next few days.

It feels a little odd pootling along out here in the middle of nowhere while history is being made back home. Paul has kindly kept us in touch with the news but it is too early to clearly see the way ahead for GB isn’t it.

Two new birds, a grey backed storm petrel and a pink tailed, red billed tropic bird both witness our passage west as they are from the New Zealand, Australian, West Pacific area. A big part of our enjoyment is scouring our reference books to learn about these lovely creatures. The books nearly cover one half of the table and are full with great photos.

To cap all this we have just caught what we think is a blue fin tuna, so that helps me with the “Hm what shall we have for supper situation, fried tuna and pasta!”

 

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