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Ace - Wednesday Dec 5 aboard



Ace: Start of Day 9.  Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

I'm sure you're all bored of hearing about how happy we all are, how well we are getting along, how we are finding both peace and inspiration in the smallest of details…..well I thought it might be an apropos time to tell you some of the real details.  Some of the true facts about our day to day life at sea, 9 days out on a small 48 foot boat….
…….To begin, the boat stinks.  Not in sailing ability but I mean it has a foul odor that seems to have saturated everything and everyone.  The forward cabin, or the place that Chris and I call home, has earned several  nicknames, the most popular being "Fetid Swamp", "Crepuscular cave", or just plain, "ghetto."  A deck pad-eye above Chris' port side bunk has been leaking since we left and thus his bed is virtually floating in a sea of rust colored salt water weeping from the headliner.  My starboard bunk is in much better shape with only the spinnaker pole constantly dripping sea water into my berth.  And oh yeah, the overhead hatch has a leak and leaks on to my bunk as well.  We tried to air the boat out yesterday by opening the hatches during a period of relative calm…..bad decision. While Chris was dancing on the foredeck with his headphones on, he failed to notice the wave that was washing across the foredeck and rolling onto our bunks….I believe Bruno Mars, "Runaway" was playing on his iPod.  What I also failed to mention was the forward sail locker open to our cabin has been housing the slowly rotting fruit and vegetables which William was steadfastly been trying to get us to consume, despite our fierce reluctance to eat rotten and spoiled food.  Perhaps a depression baby?…And the last straw thrown on the forward cabin Camels back was that the aft head was "broken"  a few days back by a dynamic duo to remain unnamed, and thus all 7 un-showered bodies have been doing their dailies between the leaks and the decaying vegetables beside our bunks in the Ghetto.  Please don't think that the other bunks and areas of the boat are immune to this sort of tragedy….Little Ricky's bunk had a flood from an overhead port light left open, as did Prince William's, and the port light above Adrian's bunk has had a steady drip, though he hardly looks up from reading "50 Shades of Grey" to notice.  Chris lack of sleep seems to have developed into an allergy to the galley……Fred is constantly looking for Uranus and thus driving us in circles at night….and Rob…..actually Rob's mild manner seems to avoid any attempt at sarcasm….can that be true? Ill get back to you on that.

Now on the serious, we are still sailing pretty damn fast though we are supposed to run out of wind tomorrow afternoon.  And even more impressive than our consistent 20+knot surf rides, is the fact that we are en route to making our 9th consecutive 200+ mile day……an incredible achievement for anyone familiar with sailing.   Its been too fast to fish but we have managed to catch a few flying fish on the decks each night, and even a little squid!  Poor bugger was dried up and clinging to a turning block when we found him….a pilot whale surfed by us this AM after a beautiful sunrise, and I was fortunate to see the Southern Cross low in the sky just as night was departing. 

As you can tell from this email, we are all having an amazing time.  Think Big Chill without college.  Without land.  And with a really bad smell.

Keep the emails coming.  We all look forward to them.  

Hi to Jackson and Tristan
Hi to Lower Case T
Hi To Mercles.
Hi to Mom, Willie, Dad and Auntie Ka,

Its my time to drive, Bye.

Spider (AKA Bingo, Peter)  

 Time:  1640 GMT

Position:   19*18.1N  043*08.4W

Wind:  25 knots from 177*

Weather:  Squally conditions nearby but we have avoided so far!

Speed:  10+

Heading:  290*

Crew of ACE

PS.  Some of you have been sending messages which are quite appreciated and more are welcome.  We just ask you to keep them brief and you must also know that these are read daily in the cockpit for all to hear.  We enjoy it greatly!!!


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