Hello hello hello from the good ship EH01- any suggestions for a new name
would be great, our crew offerings are only suitable for the watershed.!
Well as Ronan Keating puts it “Life is a rollercoaster” and this certainly
been true on EH01 for the last few days. We have encountered a wide range of
weather from Atlantic squalls to boat becalming which is frustrating when we are
against the clock to our destination. Also the 4 hour watch system doesn`t get
easier and due to lack of sleep each of the crew have their grumpy moments but
we are all helping each other through it. i.e telling the grumpy person to get a
grip
.!
If you want a detox and also a weight-loss sailing experience send the 2
thinnest people on the boat to get provisions, Andras and Jimbo, not a cm of
excess fat between them.! Starkers has had to put a couple of new holes
onto his belt. We all look a lot healthier and have lost the carb bellies that
is mainly caused by bread, oh to have some lovely baguettes.! The snack-master
undergoes daily abuse about dishing out half biscuits, it is quite reminiscent
of a scene from Oliver.
On Tuesday Jimbo and Storme did a hair treatment, a very expensive pure
lemon, we aim for Jimbo to be white blonde by the time that he gets to the
Caribbean. Also clean clothes have run out so the washing started in earnest,
the boat now looks like a Chinese laundry which has replaced the fruit nets as
our fruit has nearly run out, how long does it take for scurvy to set in?!
Clothes pegs are still a hot commodity, forget about oil prices.!
We also had a new friend join us: Edwina the Egret who hung round the boat
for ages, obviously liked the eclectic music and the ham that the crew were
feeding her.
Pricey (Rich) has been logging our progress diligently after every watch:
distance sailed and distance to our destination. This has been a hot debate
topic as to celebrate the halfway point a cake is baked and an official photo is
taken. We decided that even though yesterday was not the official halfway point,
it was the midpoint of our voyage and would be psychologically good for us to
celebrate this. Our omelette lunch team used the last of the eggs but Doug
was able to improvise with milk, butter and some yeast and coated the chocolate
cake with roasted walnuts, mmm!
The food colour team did not fare as well as they covered the cake with
concentrated green and yellow dye (instructions were in Spanish) and half the
crew had green dye all over them. The cake was delicious though.!!
We are very excited about Peder`s upcoming birthday on Saturday,
unfortunately the purchased Birthday paraphenelia has been mislaid (left in Las
Palmas) so the marketing team are scrounging for cardboard and paper for some
very trendy home-made fare.! Also it is rumoured that Peder is a fan of extreme
music, Amazon don`t seem to deliver hard-core heavy metal to a mid Atlantic
destination.
As I write this we are 1355nm from our destination which is 5nm from our
official halfway (yee haaa!!) and our ETA rums in Rodney bay is Thursday
afternoon. We have eventually found the Trade winds which were on a long
minibreak and we are flying along in 18knots of breeze with a good 8knots SOG
and 7.5knots VMG which in laymans speak means that we are going fast in the
right direction.! This is such great news for us as yesterday we were
stuck in a wind-hole at 0knots boat speed and listening to the frustrating slap
of the sails going nowhere in hot hot humidity. Rumour has it we are now back in
the game and are chasing some of the boats which took the Northerly track and
have made time on Joanna of Cowes, watch this space!
Tune in tomorrow for an introduction to the Skipper, First and Second
mate.
The EH01 Marketing Director Out