Sunshine, rotten potatoes, barometer still rising.
Fleck
Sun 27 Jul 2014 12:44
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Sunday 27th July, 2014
Position 42:59.3N 22:02.1W
Well, all the news is in the headline really. There
have been no sail changes for 24 hours, as we head North East at about 4.5
knots. Yesterday evening it got very cloudy and rained a bit, but today the
skies have cleared, and Hannah is making her new Azores bikini a 'good value
buy' by sunbathing in it for the second day running. Lying down on the cockpit
seats is moderately comfortable, as we are at a gentle and steady angle of heal.
No sea sick pills today, and as conditions get more gentle still we shall get
all the sails set, and hope to make progress for another 24 hours or so before
grinding to a halt in a ridge of high pressure to our North.
It says something good about my anxiety
levels when I tell you that a preoccupation has become how much food
we have left. For years I have overstocked with food for these long
passages, but finally I seem to have cut back to what suddenly seems to be a
bare minimum. Just now I have sorted through our little sac of potatoes, and was
disheartened to find that the grand-daddy of them had turned rotten, and has
been consigned to the deep. I reckon that leaves us with about enough for four
more stir fry main meals: our favourite; and we shall have to get on with them
too, before the remainings spuds also go bad. That leaves pasta, cous cous and
rice, plus various tins of veggies and baked beans for Madamoiselle's supper:
not so very exciting, but ah well! Anyway, I'm all right Jack, I have
eggs, and tins of fish and meat. Fruit is OK so far, but our pears are going
soft. We have enjoyed mangoes and a melon, so I don't think that scurvy will
catch up with us, we also have a few firm tomatoes in the fridge, and joy of
joy, I have discovered a packet of tomato soup in one of the deeper
recesses of the galley, Hannah's favourite.
Once again I have invited the crew to add to our
chronicle, buy she informs me that her time is not yet come. So any pearls of
wisdom from that quarter will have to wait another day. Surprise, surprise:
school work is at a standstill, apart from some progress with Pride and
Prejudice. Hannah has however learned to plot our position on our North Atlantic
chart. It covers a big area, but at last there is a discernable march of our
little fixes towards the UK. This interest was engendered by my refusal over the
last three days to answer the perennial child on a journey question: 'Are we
nearly there yet, Dad?'
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