21.01N 024.54W
Meryon.bridges
Sun 29 Nov 2009 15:07
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21.01N 024.54W
150nm North of Cape Verde
Greetings to all who are kind enough to take an
interest in the wellbeing and progress of the good ship ARES and her 250+ year
old crew.
Today's blogger is a stowaway who you will
understand wishes to be known as a n on, I was fortunate to evade a sterm to
stern stern seach
before leaving Pueto Restinga when a cat, mouse and
parrot were found and put ashore before the chirpy team of geriatrics set off in
the
footsteps of Columbus.
I find myself in the company of a rum bunch to put
it at it's kindliest, perhaps when we have progressed a little further I may
feel it safe to
reveal myself but for the moment I am content to
observe their antics from my various hiding spots - let me tell you some of what
I have seen:
There appear to be two chaps of a military nature
who keep talking in riddles of SOP's, RV's, Rations, Hard Tack which seems to
both confuse
and irritate the the
other pair who seem far more relaxed to the point of being accused of 'slobs' by
soldier 1 & 2. As the boat left harbour this
hapless pair (the crew?) were restrained from
celebating with a toast from the foredeck and instead had to respond to orders
barked from what
I can only assume to
be the owners.
The first few days have passed peacefully with the
four men preocupied with meals (everyone seems to take it in turns to be chef of
the day,
which provides the other three with a chance to
abuse them and praise them in equal measure in relation the the amount of gas
and water used
in the preparation and the quantity dropped on the
floor when the boat lurches). Another topic of concern has been Flossy and try
as I did I was
quite unable to find this lady in any of the cabins
until finally it became clear she lived right at the back of the boat - indeed
she was hanging over
the back and is not another crew member but a badly
behaved collection of string and metal who has the job of steering the boat.
Flossy shares
her precarious location with Geraldine the
generator who also has been roundly abused for some days. Today however it seems
that these two
'girls' have been beaten into submission and
obedience and have earnt some grudging praise from the military types who seem
to be responsible
for thie welfare.
From my vantage point today I was able to observe
some stange behaviour as the crew were introduced to a pair of sticks with stiff
hairy bottoms
and a sort of flower pot recepticle for water and
in the blazing sun they were sent to the very front of the boat and told to
'scrub' their way back to
the cockpit - equally strange was the sight of one
of the owners 'sewing sails' in one of the crew's bedrooms while the other tried
to set fire to the
with a child's dummy in his mouth which belched out
foul smelling smoke.
SUNDAY MIDDAY
I was begining to relax and feel that the time was
fast approaching when I could safely reveal myself when horror struck - during
the night hours
another stowaway came onboard but one lacking in my
guile and caution, the flying fish lept onto the sidedeck and far from being
welcomed
as a new crew member this unfortunate creature was
at once popped into the freezer for a vey chilling experience prior to being
served up as
a substitute for sardines which I understand Ares
to be well stocked with to the disgust of one of the army types. Clearly I will
have to postpone
introducing myself to the crew until they can smell
the BBQ's of Antigua and I no longer have the appeal of fresh
meat.
must dash think I can hear someone approaching,
more news when I
can...........................................................
the crew will have to nwait
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