2244 miles sailed, 776 to go.
Yesterday was quite a day. We woke to the strains of Slade singing 'Merry
Christmas Everyone'; it being St Nicholas' Day, Vicki (our entertainments
officer) had decided that it should be White Satin's Christmas Day. So,
Christmas songs, quizzes etc. throughout the day. One quiz was chocolate
themed - e.g. if the clue is 'Fowl Joy', what chocolate confection is the
answer? See tomorrow's blog for the solution. We do have a version of
Christmas dinner on the boat and had planned to have that last night, but as
it is now clear that we will be at sea for David's 60th birthday, we have
postponed the special dinner for a celebration meal on Saturday. We have
reserve stocks of food under floorboards in various bits of the boat, the
plan was that we would lift the floorboards and retrieve this food before
preparing yesterday's dinner, but that plan was overtaken by events - more
of that later.
Lunch was a real treat. Fiona baked bread - yes, proper home-made bread from
scratch on a rolling and pitching boat. Served straight from the oven with
cold meats and the last of the tomatoes, it was delicious. Followed by the
last of the melon for dessert - a real feast.
Late afternoon, we were building up to the floorboard lifting job when there
was a call of 'Whales!'. Just off our starboard beam was at least one whale.
It (or they, it was impossible to tell if it was the same one we were seeing
over and over again, or if there were several of them) swimming alongside
the boat, spouting water, popping out and cruising just under the surface.
We were mesmerised. The show went on for hours. We don't have a whale expert
on board, so couldn't identify what type of whale - a relatively small fin
on its back, maybe 20 foot long - could it be a pilot whale? As we were
making about 7 knots at the time, it was commented that we now know that
whales can do 7 knots; having Jon on board, this was of course followed by
speculation about which knots we thought it could do - reef knot? bowline?
Conjures up some amusing mental pictures.
While the whale was still providing entertainment it was time to prepare
dinner. So, no reserve stocks having been retrieved, dinner was what we had
to hand - tinned chicken curry, rice and (it goes without saying) spiced
cabbage. While Paul was dealing with the cabbage, Nemo popped up again to
say hello, Paul abandoned his post in the galley to see the whale, the boat
pitched, see the photo for the inevitable outcome. Lucky we still have
plenty of cabbage on board.
So, all in all, an eventful day. Interestingly, for me at least, the extent
to which time moves slowly is related to the speed we are doing. Generally,
if we are bombing along at a fast pace, the day seems to fly by; if we are
bobbing about making little headway, the time drags. Regardless of the speed
of travel, whale watching really helps pass the time.
Having a whale of a time.
Helen
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