23 39N 59 35W

Osprey
John Bowering
Wed 20 May 2009 22:51
Another idylic day in the Atlantic - almost no wind but beautiful clear day with crystal blue seas. The crew are in sufficiently good spirits to have worn the Captain out. John was on the 4 to 8 this morning when Kuki appeared at 0500. After a cup of coffee she turned to cleaning up the cockpit and bridge deck and soon had John clearing the salt of the windows. All this was a result of her washing some clothes then having the water used for other things. The meal of the day was ready by 0600 as Kuki had sat on deck topping and tailing the vegetables. Charles had been on his usual 12 - 4 watch and was therefore asleep. At 0730 it was decided he had had enough slumber and the Carpenters CD was broadcast at a reasonably high level. - Charles suprised everyone by leaping out of his bunk and singing at the top of his voice - we were all in hysterics for a while. Kuki is now fully in control of the galley (apart from Charles baking sessions) and produced a great fried breakfast with all the trimmings. One of the advantages of the fine weather is the boat is reasonably steady and we have been able to do some maintenace work whilst idling along waiting form the wind gods to smile on us. Whilst we have plenty of fuel there is no identifiable wind stream on the horizon so there is little point in using the fuel until we are sure of a destination which will give us some wind. There are a number of boats in the mid atlantic that have already used up their fuel and generally unhappy with life. Once we have a handle on the future wind we will try and motor up to it. The fishing rod has yet to produce any sustenance although we have seen some fish and changed out the lures regularly - eventually we will catch the big one.

So now the crew view - John of the Chuddies, has now been renamed Buddha and resides in the aft cabin issuing orders through the hatch to which Crazy Kuki & Charles sometimes pay attention to. After their early morning dhoby Osprey was once again festooned with Chuddies - it is amazing that 3 crew plus SC Ted can require so many pairs of underwear!
After the baking success of yesterday's bread Charles decided that the Blueberry Muffins were definitely the order of the day. So he went about the business of mixing together the ingredients on deck and then putting them in the oven - at which point Buddha said "what the bloody hell are you up to this time." Anyway, 20 mins later the Skipper was tucking into warm muffins - all the crew agreed that they made a nice change but wholewheat with flax seed was not the greatest combination.
This evening a great event in Osprey's adventures ocurred - we conversed with another ship, the unforunate thing was that "Torre du Vuit" was being sailed by a Spaniard who spoke little English. Not really cricket, after the Empire we thought everyone spoke English! There had been much discussion of the correct manner to greet this visitor to our domain of Lake Placid - several ideas were put forward, most of which John would not allow, but just in case Kuki & Charles developed continegncy plans if it turned out to be some lost Somali Pirates, with Kuki heard to mutter "don't they know we have the Royal Navy & British Army onnboard". Anyway, it was ascertained that like Osprey this other yacht was heading for Horta, in the Azores, and so a rendevous was made for there sometime before the Autumn but totally dependent on getting some wind.
Kuki is now developing into a useful deck hand - well, she has had a go on the "turning thing" and even steered whilst tacking the yacht. As for the "Stringy bits" she is beginning to work out how these work and which bit to harden or loosen as required. As can be gleaned from the above drivel all is well and morale is high, now we are settling to Kuki's creation of Chicken Korma and praying for wind.

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