23:57.1N 22:23.71W
Sinan
Tim Kelsey
Wed 18 Nov 2009 20:48
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Day 5 (Wed 18th Nov)
The day is drawing to a close and Sinan's crew has
just enjoyed another one of those sunsets Hollywood now uses computer graphics
to generate. Turner should have done the odd Blue Water Rally - he'd have coined
it in on the reproduction postcards alone.
We all agree that today has been the best so far.
Things got off to a great start with conditions which favoured yanking up the
spinnaker (apologies for the yachting jargon - "yanking up" is a techinical term only true sailors understand the
meaning of). Some lovely north east wind saw us make up to 9 knots for a while
(think squeezing 110 mph out of a Fiat Panda). Things then died down a little -
just in time for a lunch of chicken salad. You my have noticed our on-board diet
has been a tad heavy on the poultry side. This is because we decided to
clean out Lanzarote's most brutal butcher (a crowded field, that) of almost all
his chicken breasts before casting off. We've got 10 kilos of the stuff (when
tacking, Captain K factors in this weight as much as the wind).
Whiling away the hours has been surprisingly easy -
and, no, the Scrabble still hasn't been broken out. The older members of Sinan's
crew have invented a great new game: how to make teenager Kitkat say the word
"tomorrow". Particular favourites include:
"Kit, when are you going to read one of your
A-level books?"
"Kit, when are you going to put some suntan lotion
on?"
"Kit, when are you going to index the storage
boxes?"
And then, in a typically teenage fashion, Kit
manages to confound the sceptics by singlehandedly rustling up sticky rice,
peas, sweetcorn and, er, chicken for a splendid supper. Followed, amazingly, by
apple crumble and custard (thankfully without a chicken sauce). Earlier in the
day, I'd made my first ever loaf - and a monster it was, too. But Kit won the
culinary battle today hands down.
At sea, it's vital to keep an eye on conditions at
all times. While Colin is a dab hand at sniffing the wind, and Captain K has
more descriptive words for the sea state than the eskimos have words for snow, I
like to think I'm Sinan's expert on natural light. Once
again Captain K accuses me of "sunbathing on the foredeck". I explain,
patiently, that I am in fact keeping watch from a highly dangerous position -
and only lying down so as not to obstruct his view of his precious
spinnaker.
Talking of talents, Colin's ability to fix things never ceases to amaze.
His knowledge of matters mechanical is astonishing. My only fear is that is he
may be sneaking around the boat at night unscrewing things just so he can mend
them in the morning.
Despite this, the biggest fixing job so far fell to Captain K. One of the
heads (ie: toilets) has been out of action of a couple of days and it fell to
the skipper to do that which high command demands - go down on all fours and,
well, get his hands dirty. He had the good grace, not to say steely souled
courage, to close the door behind him (just as well - I was preparing that
chicken salad at the time). The howls that emanated from that tiny,
closeted space will stay with Sinan's crew for the rest of their lives. Olivier
playing Oedipus doesn't even come close. Just as we prepared to promote Colin to
Commodore, Captain K emerged - sweating, but happy - and bellowed: "Right.
Lunch!"
Even the low point today wasn't really a low point. For the second time in
three days, Captain K caught a decent sized fish - only to see the slippery so
and so wriggle off the hook at the last moment. But the idea of trying to find
room in our fridge for fish alongside all that chicken leaves me pondering the
merits of vegetarianism.
Anyway, that's enough for now. We've done about 650 miles and it's time for
a spot of reading and arguing over what should be on the iPod.
RWD |