Chief Medical Officer Manrique here, checking in.

 

A lovely time has been had by all in Bermuda. Swimming in postcard-perfect beaches, pottering about, sampling (repeatedly) the local Gosling’s Rum and the odd bit of quasi cross dressing. Skipper seems to enjoy sauntering around in his sarong. He also turned up the other evening with four ladies t-shirts and some ladies hats. These have become our crew shirts, which we will sport proudly as we set sail today.

 

Contrary to best practices we went out for a bit of a drink last night, in a Rastafarian-run bar on Turtle Bay. A turtle even popped his head up to greet us. Mauritz taught us the finer points of sailing using beer mats and straws. Feeling a touch groggy this morning, but Mauritz seems to have managed an early morning of berry picking. Not sure yet whether or not they’re poisonous, but will soon find out as the Swede has been sampling them.

 

Bermuda is, essentially, great. Unbelievably beautiful beaches, absurdly friendly people and the most pristine townships we have ever seen. It’s been a blast pottering around. Of course, a spring has been added to our step as we managed to sail Gertha into second place in the rally! This despite the fact that I spent the majority of the Sargasso passage hurling my deepest guts over (and occasionally onto) the side of Gertha. I learned a lot about myself at sea, mainly regarding the colour of my insides. Skipper and Mauritz looked after us very well, stepping up to some longer-than-usual shifts and leading us with much appreciated patience and understanding. But Emma soon recovered and force-fed your very own CMO to recovery. Emma is, by all accounts, at least a half natural sailor, steering straight as an arrow through some messy conditions. I am as yet considered a half-hand. My value as CMO lies only in the fact that I possess a machete, for when times get too rough.

 

Word has spread of how sick Emma and I were, and we are now in possession of a generous cabinet-full of various pharmaceuticals and ginger-based pills. Just need to push through the first three days and then we’ll be just fine.

 

Excited to get going this morning. Seems to be a little bit of wind. We’re well stocked, so even if there is no wind we’ll be happily fattening up on baked goods.

 

Time to don our ladies clothing and point ourselves vaguely in that direction...