All under a Gibbous Waning Moon

Juno
Mon 8 Dec 2014 13:51
15:52.45N 047:23.6W Day Fifteen at Sea - 08/12/14 Rather unusually for men, we've discovered we have over-catered. So it's meat from now on with the rather rude mammary cheese which featured at the start of the blogs in Las Palmas. How that schoolboy joke has back-fired. The product is sold on its shape not its taste. We have cleared out the fridge and re-packed with fizzies and that not-yet, not-yet beer. Under 800nm to go and the crisp astringent taste of alcohol is beginning to re-enter our imaginations. Water is OK but... and I'll drink Coke & Fanta but I'm worried about my perfect teeth. I'm delighted to report that two weeks without a drop o' turps has had no effect on my belly - so it must be age and gravity, not the grog. All please not for future reference. Reading Conrad as my Kindle with all the trash on has packed up. I think sea-faring in his day was a little tougher. We had a waning gibbous (thank you Jane) moon last night with good views of Jupiter before dawn. On this planet the ocean is quiet. We have sailed 1,300nm since Cap Verde (of the ex-Las Palmas total of 2,200nm) and not seen or heard of another ARC boat. Where are they all? Rally Control has us 55th from the back (we were 4th from the back after CV) .Saw a masthead light at around midnight - 100 footer on the way to Dominica. A N-ARC'er. Great excitement first thing as an empty 600ft dry bulker crossed our path - on-board computer's calculated a collision was imminent despite the 10,000 sq miles of sea room. With impeccable politesse he called us up from 5 miles to ask us OUR intentions. We said our intention was to ask him to turn. He altered course 10 degrees at our request - thank you MV "Pine". At least out here sail takes precedence. Not so the Solent eh? Elsewhere on the boat it is (another) laundry day. It get's a trifle sweaty at nights. The hull temp is about 37C by nightfall and 27C by dawn. Skip sanctioned two hours of air con last night, so we fell to sleep cold and awoke sweltering. Hope the weather in Blighty is OK. We all want snow for our returns. Wind softening and the forecast looks as though more gentle breezes due. Never mind the flappy rig/sails, we could do with a couple of days to get these nm down. Nav-man sweating a bit about flight timings. Only he can calculate our berthing time down to the nearest minute. Gammon for lunch. Hope Stockholm was crazy girls. |