Sunday 7th December
2014
Either one pot dinner or salads tend
to be the easier options when cooking aboard. However judging the quantity a pot
will hold when assembling dinner is often hit or miss. Last night we were well
above the plimsoll line of the skillet used for the chicken Provencal and much
as I tried to reduce the sauce we suffered the odd spillage despite the fact
that the stove is gimbled. Cleaning behind the stove will be one of those choice
jobs when we arrive! We have also discovered another of those unwritten rules of
the sea that conditions will always deteriorate as soon as anyone starts to
prepare a meal. We now are fairly well acquainted with the ‘safe zones’ for
placing cooking items, however, there will always be that rogue wave that
catches us out.
It was sometime after the honey rum
fruit salad for desert that Alastair announced with great consternation that
there was a huge passenger liner to our stern coming straight at us. We all
looked, and whilst there was no sign of it just 10 minutes earlier, there it
was; I counted at least 5 stories, all illuminated within a large rectangular
outline. I sprinted below and switched on the tri-colour masthead light and
George shouted down to also switch on the deck lights so they would see us. In
the meantime Ian and I were trying to identify her on the radar/ chart plotter.
I knew something was up when I heard sniggers from on deck just a few minutes
later. This is not the first time, nor probably the last that the moon appearing
over the horizon looks nothing like a moon until it climbs higher. Strong stuff
that honey rum fruit salad!
Much of the banter is now beginning
to focus on what we are going to do when we arrive? The most popular answers are
rum punches, diving, sightseeing and some way down the list cleaning and
repairing the boat! All the cushions have acquired a moist, soft quality which
comes from the humid marine environment that we are living in. I for one will
look forward to giving everything a good airing.
Last night we put in a solid
performance; approximately 190nm under our belt in a 24 hr period (03:00 –
03:00), not bad for a small 43’ boat. The boat was once again screaming along at
8-9 knots on a flat broad reach (120 ° off the wind) making straight for our
rhumb line of 255°T. Today, winds have moderated though we are experiencing the
odd squall. If possible, we steer a course around them, however, some are so
large we have to go through them though none have been as severe as we were
warned about. At around lunch, the wind died, the rain started and we are now
bobbing on a very lumpy sea, dead downwind with 10 knots (T) of wind and just
under 5 knots boat speed over the ground. We’ll give it a bit longer before we
decide whether or not to motor. We won’t take that decision lightly as there’s a
time weighted correction factor for motoring we’d rather not
incur.