We had another super supper cooked by Yoyo last night
which included a Marbella chicken with apricots and olives with pasta and for
pudding some rum flambé banana pancakes - some 5 star cooking for
sure! Sam, Victoria and I then settled in for our watch at 7pm,
which really was some champagne sailing. The night sky
was spectacular, blanketed with stars and this is when Sam's
star-gazing app on his iPad became our entertainment for our shift.
Meanwhile, the boys and Yoyo settled in to watch a film, Zero Dark
Thirty in the saloon (yes this is a luxury cruise - although a 4am shift is
never ideal!).
At about 1am it started to get very choppy and the wind
picked up to about 12 knots - those who weren't on watch certainly started to
feel the roll in our beds! At 5am the wind began to drop again and the sea
became calmer. By 10am the motor was on, and the water flat. This was perfect
conditions for Yoyo to have her first attempt at freshly baked Foccacia - and
my, did she do a good job - we sampled the evidence as part of our lunch!
If that wasn't enough there were even two pods of dolphins to accompany
us.
After lunch Haig was sent up the mast to fix the
spreader covers - also a great time for a photo op of the crew from a birds
eye view! Great excitement then came when we spotted a fin cutting through the
water in the distance, far too slowly to be a dolphin. We decided to take a
closer look and turned the boat towards the mystery creature. Sure enough, when
we were about 15 metres away we discovered it was a hammerhead shark -
which put a slight spanner in the works for our planned swim. He soon
disappeared and we were back on course. The girls banned all boys from the
pilates session on the foredeck although marine Nick slipped in for some press
ups to show off his skills! A swim was then in order and everyone dived in with
great speed at the thought of being clean once again. Two showers in two days
& no danger in sight - luxury! And just
before we sign off - we've just spotted a turtle in the water, a very hard day
in the office!