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Lydia - Leg 2 Day 11 - Lazy Sunday



After night watches in which we had an exciting time with winds up to 30 kts
for a short while under a squall cloud, a mystery yacht crossed us heading
north and a merchantman appearing directly ahead of us and passed relatively
close by, in keeping with the Keep Sunday Special campaign we have
consciously done not a lot today. Lydia gets no rest though and, thanks to
the continuing favourable wind, we have rumbled along nicely all day and,
for the second day running, topped the leader board in our division for
'Velocity Made Good' (VMG) by half a knot over our nearest rival with an
average of 6.5 kts.

Despite the lazy Sunday routine shipboard life goes on. Real men don't make
fire - they make water. And touch wood the water maker has done its bit
every day to ensure our tanks are topped up, water bottles are filled and
enough is left over for us to contemplate a shower. With the last of the
fresh veg now consumed two mistakes were made today. The first was to decide
to clean the veg locker and the second was probably made a few days ago by
returning a part-used bottle of tomato puree to the locker rather than to
the fridge. The puree had built up enough fermentation pressure in this near
30 degree heat to overcome the seal on the jar and thus the inside of the
veg locker and the bilge below looked like an axe murderer had been at work.

Accusatory thoughts about the dirty habits of fellow shipmates had been
building in proportion the growing smell coming from the for'd heads. But
all is now sweetness and light having diagnosed that some heads maintenance
in the form of a large dose of vinegar is needed to decalcify a flap valve
that should stop what has been pumped sneaking back from whence it has come.
Balsamic stocks are too low to address this problem now and some cheap &
cheerful white vinegar in industrial quantities should do the trick when we
get to St Lucia.

Sargasso weed update - a bit like Jaws ......... its back! So north going
current theories were clearly inspired but fundamentally flawed.

On the culinary front some went for the full Sunday cooked breakfast and
then for lunch we gorged on fish (sardine) and meat (leftover steak &
chorizo) pizza which, apart from the skipper who nobly took the afternoon
watch, induced a bout of Sargasso sleeping sickness in the rest of us.
Tonight chicken fickle sea followed a fairly mean caipirinha sundowner made
with the last of the limes.

The midday radio roundup banter has included references to those at the
front being in the bar already. With just over 300 miles still to go we
still think we'll have to wait until Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday before we
find ourselves in a bar but we reckon ELEONORA, the hot boat that was next
to us in Mindelo, should arrive in Rodney Bay tonight.


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