Just as they were ready to launch, Carol was ready to make the turn. Up goes the chute and up shoots the wind to a speed way beyond that at which a cruising chute should be deployed. Back into it’s bag it went and that was that. We will have to wait for another day. On a completely different note. We have been running an interesting biological experiment. Cruising sailors work very hard at finding meat that is vacuum packed because it lasts for weeks apparently. It is not always easy to find however so doing it yourself is another option. Using the very marvellous ‘Cruising Chef Cookbook’ as recommended by Kit we had chosen a piece of pork loin, rinsed it in vinegar to kill any surface bacteria then put it into a ziplock bag with a couple of garlic cloves, some rosemary and sunflower oil. As much air as possible was excluded and the pack put into a box in the coldest part of the fridge. It has been inspected regularly and sniffed carefully over the last five weeks and so far smelt of rosemary and garlic rather than anything more noxious; say, salmonella. Five weeks seemed long enough so we decided we should cook it and eat a small piece. Hopefully not enough to make us too sick but enough for us to tell whether it tasted OK and to see if there were any mild ill effects. | 
