Thursday 13th March
THE WAANS
Barry:
Robert said to JB and myself this morning, can one of you write yesterday's log, as I can't remember if anything actually happened. (RL nothing significant!) An obvious case of the WAANS, if ever I saw one: an infliction that has been affecting him, on a more regular basis, ever since he relaxed the dry-boat policy. The symptoms began to manifest soon after the appearance of a 2-litre carton of white wine for lunch, Robert then disappears to his aft cabin and is not seen for an hour or two. To be fair, Wine Assisted After-Noon Siesta is a highly contagious affliction that spreads rapidly through the crew, save for the poor soul that has the après-lunch watch.
Yours truly was on lunch duty yesterday, which was supposed to feature Parma ham and honey-dew melon, primarily to use the melon that was fast approaching its TOS date (Tossing over the side). The menu took a slight
about-turn, when I had a look in the fosc'le food store and found all the ingredients for a Pacific anti-pasti banquet. Artichoke hearts, asparagus, stuffed vine leaves combined with a tomato and red onion salad, Parma ham and last night's reheated tortilla and green beans. All washed down with a delightful little Sauvignon Blanc.
Later in the afternoon a new tradition was established aboard Quasar, Thursday afternoon Yahtzee. Robert did not join us as he had succumbed to a clear case of the WAANS (RL. no real interest and I was cooking!). The first game was squalled off, but will resume later today.
Satisfied that the fish in the fridge was a Wahoo, and not a Barracuda and therefore good to eat, touch wood! We had Wahoo a la Robert for dinner: fillets of Wahoo gently marinated in soy sauce, garlic and ginger, then fried and served on a bed of fettuccini. It was absolutely delicious, which is a very good thing as we have enough Wahoo fillets in the freezer to feed us all the way to Tahiti.
The watches last night were quite eventful with squall lines approaching on a regular basis, bringing gusts of up to 24kts and rain. After a very mixed night we have had good morning: sunny, with steady 15-20kt SE on the beam
and all the sails up. Quasar has come alive and is really relishing these conditions and this point of sailing, averaging 8kts for the last 9 hours. long may it last!
Stay tuned!
JB: The poor soul who had the après lunch watch happened to be me, not that it was by choice as Roberto, Malcs, Linds and Barry all skulked off to their bunks to sleep off the wine leaving me in the cockpit. I obviously missed the part when some one said "ready steady go!". Anyway, it was a blissful afternoons sail, with 10 knots of wind from the south. This was a marked difference from this morning's sail, which was squally and rainy with variable winds. Indeed when I was on the SSB at 12 noon the fickle wind backed from north west to south in just 20 minutes. It was clear from taking the positions and weather conditions of other World ARC yachts that our best plan would be to put as much south in our course as possible as other yachts at more southerly latitudes were experiencing 10 knots of south easterly trade winds. So off we charged on a course of 220 degrees and bingo within an hour we bumped in to some rather sheepish trade winds of 8-10 knots. Enough to get the sails up and engine off and hence my afternoon watch was a blissful one; I indulged in several hours of hand steering to seek out as much wind as possible..well actually foot steering...yes I must have words with Moody about that as one cannot lean against the back of the cockpit and hand helm at the same time; bit of a design fault.
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