Reading: Act of Oblivion (Robert Harris)
Weather: Wind very light for most of the day and mostly hazy, sometimes sunny. Warmer than previously …..
Thought for the day: Is the anticipation of heavy weather worse than the weather itself? The jury is out ….
Evening meal: Roast lamb, cauliflower cheese and baby potatoes
Course: 180-200oC
Distance covered: At 1200 we had covered 1,567 miles (Log 5,752)
Wildlife headcount: The usual suspects ….
An easy day today – a touch of rock and roll in the leftover seas. Without any sails up to steady us we roll around a bit, but it isn’t uncomfortable. The engine was on for a lot of the day but finally went off when some wind came up around 5pm and we pottered slowly south. The weather forecast shows us that we are in for a blow in the next thirty-six hours, so it is nice to have a quiet period in the meantime.
In this light weather it is an easy routine. As ever I get up around 5.30am and make the most of the conditions to have a shower without the water trying to escape the ensuite wet room as we roll around. We are greeted on watch with a bowl of porridge and a cup of tea and then we take over. Around 8am we have breakfast. My watch are creative bakers so breakfast is quite varied. Today (as many days) there was fresh bread and fresh fruit buns which Jet had put on in the previous watch. They then also baked some American style pancakes (thicker ones – pun not intended?). If not these then sometimes we have Dutch style pancakes, banana pancakes (when there is a banana crisis, though this is over for this leg) or what I would call eggy bread or French toast. The Dutch name for these translates literally as Turning Bitches, though I am not sure entirely how woke this is!
Once breakfast is done and washed up we then potter around and in these conditions it is nice for reading or chatting until around 11.30am when we start preparing coffee and tea for the next watch and getting lunch ready for everyone. After lunch I send some messages home from Alex’s Garmin GPS and then have a break and some sleep before going on watch again at 6pm. This is also time for supper before the other watch head for bed and we take over until midnight. Then repeat …..