MAGIC May Blog
Thursday 3rd December 2015
Address 17.35.05N
43.07.19W
I still can’t quite get used to having to get up at midnight
and work looking after Mark and Tina for three hours. Why on earth do they want to do this every night? It is odd as they meet Simon and John who say
hello from outside and then they go to bed – why can’t we just stay in
bed? But we are staying positive about
everything Tina says, so I will too even though I am a bit tired. I am quite scruffy now and need a spa day –
but I have been promised that when we get to the warm other place.
We have had a quiet day but still a lot has happened. The generator – which is the whirry thing
that makes the feeders happy – stopped working.
They had to rummage around for a special box of things and found in the
box a small black wheelie wotsit they called and impellor. Then Nisse (who fixes everything!) jumped in
the hole at the back and after a while the Generator was working again. Tina
and Mark thanked Nisse. He is a valuable crewmember.
I think some of the feeders were thinking – oh no! not
another thing going wrong…but Tina and Mark just accept that things go wrong
and the key is to have a positive can do – can fix attitude and of course the
spare parts – the manuals and the ability to fix things. There is a new hole in the mainsail – they
say it is a split pin that has been fitted in reverse so it is puncturing the
sail when it rests there. They sigh and
add it to the list of things to buy or fix.
All is well that ends well Tina says.
Tina and Mark have a watch that is from 11am until 4pm. Today the people messed with time again and
the extra hour was added to Tina and Marks watch (again!). They didn’t mind really but it looked hard
work. Everyone wants to make the boat go as fast as possible and often that
means more focus and more work. So up
went the Big Black Sail, that I don’t like at all, and Tina and Mark manually
steered so that it didn’t go all bangy and crashy. There is more wind today and we were going 9-10
knots, which is good apparently. Seems slow to me
There has been news from other boats of things happening –
one dismasting – other people have had serious injuries on board. When my feeders read these things they are
very sad for their fellow sailors and wish them well. They also reflect on what a dangerous place a
yacht can be and it makes them renew their safety procedures and respect for
the deck and for electric winches especially.
Mark needs no reminder of being safe as he is nursing two enormous
bruises on his inner thighs – Tina says she will look after them – well she is
the ships Doctor and that is why – she says….My people are really careful and
also watch out for each other all the time.
Food was good again and I got some great stuff – they had
Parma Ham at lunchtime with Melon and then for supper they were really excited
because they had home made burgers with chips and home made bread followed by
Apple Crumble with Cinnamon and Marzipan topped with Brandy Cream (only a
teaspoon of brandy!)
I got some of the burger and it was divine….Lottie and Tina
are great in the Galley and they made the boys clear up the pots and wash the
dishes.
As the evening drew in Lottie and Nisse were on watch under
the night sky – which seems to have grown bigger. There is also something very strange going on
as the Moon has twisted. At home when
there is a half mood the slide is vertical but here the half slice is
horizontal – it just looks wrong and I wonder what is happening in my dog
world! The 4pm – 9pm watch is Lottie and Nisse's and then they are on again at
3am when Tina and Mark go off. Lottie
says it is always raining heavily on their watch. Tina says that is because Lottie is a rain
Goddess and the rain loves to be with her.
There is always something not good about your watch and something better
about someone else’s. Just as the other boats have – as Lottie put it
“everything we don’t have!” I would love
one of those so Tina and Mark feel they have everything – I wonder how much an
“everything we don’t have” is and where the feeders would store it.
Mark, Simon, Tina and John were down below and decided to
watch a movie. Tina says it is lovely to
take time out to watch a movie but it really feels weird being at sea and
watching Hangover – I do love to hear my feeders laughing – that’s a great
sound.
Into the night and Tina and I go to bed at 9pm before our
watch at mid night. We are being chased
by two Norwegian boats – In Las Palmas we were next door neighbours with one of
them – Vitesse – the owner – Hakon wanted to beat Magic so if you are watching
us on the Ais thingy you can see how we do in the Magic v Vitesse contest. We are also watching our Swedish friends on
Sandvita and Thindra and wishing them well. My feeders have decided they just want
to arrive safely into Rodney Bay. The
times are only a bit of fun. But for
those of you watching us the first over the line in the cruising sections are
not necessarily the winners as there is a handicap system and engine hours are
used as a penalty against the yacht too.
So the winners are not announced until all the yachts have passed the
finishing line. There is a prize giving
party on the 19th December.
One of the many unique pleasures of sailing in the Atlantic
hundreds of miles out to sea is that I meet some extraordinary new friends –
today there are two beautiful birds who are white like me – they are singing
and I cannot quite make out the lyrics but I think it is something to do with
fish. On the subject of fish – John
caught and enormous fish yesterday and he battled with it – Tina hates the
thought of killing a fish so she couldn’t watch. I heard the fish laughing as it bit down hard
on Johns expensive lure, spat it out and swam deep down away from us. The flying fish that tell the good jokes have
an odd and fatal sense of direction – they fly right out of the ocean and hit
the feeders and land on the deck – it is so sad. I love watching fish fly.
Now our ever-changing address is 17.01.41N 44.13.35W - it is sunny, everyone is up and has had
breakfast – I had egg and cheese – yum I love sailing! We have Gybed (don’t know what that is but I
don’t like the noises at all when we do it) I do love to slide across the floor
– that is fun and the feeders think it is great too. I have just had a bath and I feel fantastic.
The mood on board is good even though the feeders had hoped
to see that there was less than 1000 nm to go – This is a long journey. The sun is shining, there is 23kn of wind and
a big blue swell is pushing us towards Saint Lucia.
I wonder whom we will meet there?
Weather Forecast from me – Rough!