Cleone - Leg 20 Day 2- Assumptions

Assumptions are the mother of all cock-ups (Trad)

 

"I assumed we had another bottle of cooking oil" said Alex, as Norfy banged locker doors in a fruitless search whilst trying to make our supper last night.  "I assumed it was Northern Sky's lights" said Alex, just before the AIS Alarm went off to announce the approach of a big ship at 4 o'clock in the morning.  And then there was a fishing vessel.  The AIS showed a big ship over 8 miles away, but it turned out to be Norfy's bete-noir, a fishing vessel plying its trade and coming straight for us.  In none of these cases were the consequences of these assumptions serious.  We can always cook with butter (but think what this is going to do to our chloresterol levels), the big ship slid harmlessly by, never closer to us than 4 miles, and since it was daylight we were able to watch the fishing vessel carefully as it turned away from us, throwing out its buoys and laying its lines in a large circular pattern, as they often seem to do.  I am not quite sure what conclusions to draw from all of this, but the Skipper's version of the above adage is somewhat stronger, and is probably just as relevant.  When sailing (as in life itself, Alex would add) it never hurts to check our assumptions, and it generally pays not to take things at face value.

 

We have had a better day - the spinnaker has been up for nearly 24 hours now, and our total mileage is already better than the miserly 124 miles we made, mainly under engine, during the first 24 hours.  We had honey-glazed carrots last night, which was a bit of a change from Norfy's signature dish of carmelised this or that, and they took us by surprise (maybe another false assumption there, Alex?).  They went well with the Garlic Chicken; the only thing that was missing was a decent bottle of Hock to go with it.  And the Skipper got a couple of bonus points; he has actually improved the performance of the stove whilst he was cleaning and servicing it in Reunion.  It no longer squeaks (thus keeping everyone awake whilst we listen for it), and it actually swings in time with the motion of the boat.  But it's on its last legs, apparently - there's corrosion about!  Hopefully it will last for a bit yet.

 

Our total mileage was 1xxxxxxxx; not bad, and we've about 1100 miles to go to Richard's Bay.