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34o 01.6’ North 52o 02.5’ West
Number of bird breeds identified: 4
Progress continues to be made, although the winds are getting lighter and
lighter and our speed has slowed substantially. We have covered over 600
miles since leaving Bermuda 4 full days ago but we
still have 1,300 miles to go. (There’s simply
no pleasing some people; anyone seen the sun screen? – Ed.)
I am sure many of you are wondering what our routine is like and what we are
doing with all this time on our hands. The weather has really been great
so far so much of our time has been sitting and reading in the sun . . .
the hours can go by quite quickly this way. We’ve been reading a
cross-section of books and materials – Dickens, McEwan, the Economist, the Wall
Street Journal and Into The Heart of the Sea is still making the rounds.
We do all have our assigned watches – these roll over every day so they are
always changing. Captain Mark has come up with a very fair and equitable
system. There are 3 hour watches at night starting at 9
PM
(2100) and these continue until 0900 the next morning. Thus, each one of
us has one of these night watches every 24 hours and each day you have a
different watch. As I am such a night owl, I love the midnight
to 3 AM
one – I like it so much that I’ve even traded it a few times. While on
watch, you are responsible to look for boat traffic (there has been none so far
on this leg), to maintain the log and to trim sail if need be.
We also have other duties related to preparing meals as well as cleaning up
after meals and tidying up the boat. Fortunately, Chef Brian (also the
Baker), as did the lovely Louise, prepared a number of dinners in advance so
cooking dinner only requires heating up what he has already pulled together and
maybe making some rice or pasta. I’ve tried to add some little treats –
we had some old fashioned Jiffy pop corn last night at cocktail time (yep, you
can still buy it, in those aluminium foil pans – required as there no microwave
on this boat) and two days ago I made some biscuits (the American kind that are
savoury – not the British sweet kind).
That does bring up our language difficulties again – I’ve been called an
Anglophile a few times but I think it is pretty obvious that I am not as I
continue to get surprised by various bits of British vocabulary. Examples
include:
Bung – there are various ways to use this word both as a noun and verb
A Ghandi flip flop
A shooting break
A CHAV – I kind of knew what this was but I’m now realizing I didn’t quite have
the full picture
Scousers
Sweaties or Sweaty Jocks
Game on
Well, the Captain is giving sextant lessons so its time to wrap this up.
More news tomorrow.
A Captain’s apology: In common with a number of other people I may have given
the impression that I held a low opinion of James’ domestic skills. Comments
such as ‘effing useless’ may have contributed to this unfortunate
misunderstand. I now realise that I ‘miss-spoke’ and that, since the
triumph of today’s Crab Salad, that there was not a jot or scintilla of truth
in any of the above and that He is in fact a god of the galley and Gordon
Ramsey seeks his advice daily. I apologies unreservedly to James, to his family
and to the London area of Marylebone
generally for the distress caused.
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