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Mustique - Mustique.Arc.06th.Dec



Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.....

A day in the life of crew aboard Mustique.... by Scott from Scotland

My alarm is set for 23.40 but i awake, as usual 5 mins before that, cancel
the alarm and rise for my midnight to 3am watch. I make a cuppa tea for
myself & Stefan and he tells me his watch report as he has been on since
21.00. We do 3 hour watches, 9hours off continuously. Stefan's watch
report- 2 shooting stars, one flying fish on deck, zero ships, virtually
zero wind. (we have 400miles of calm conditions to get thru until we hope to
pick up wind on Monday so our tactic is to fly the kite in the day and motor
in the night).. I bid Stefan a good night and settle down for my 3 hour
watch- 3 cups of tea (coffee upsets the sleeping routine too much), 1
kit-kat, 1 hot chocolate, and a few cheeky biscuits later my watch of quiet
contemplation of life in the middle of the Ocean draws to a close and Becki
appears at 02.45 for her watch. I give her my watch report- several shooting
stars, zero ships and we have an inpromptu chat about life before i retire
at 03.00 for my main siesta of the night.

08.15 I awake to the change in RPM of the engine. Its actually easy to sleep
with the engine running, the Yanmar lullaby as Fin calls it but skippers are
a highly tuned and evolved species and we awake instantly at the slightest
change in engine rpm, or any inconsistent boat noise. 08.30 - its time to
switch engine off and hoist the kite (Gennekar- lightweight sail for light
winds) . Fin, Stefan and me hoist the sail and set her best we can for
6knots of wind.

09.00 Breakfast- we each have our own- I have musli, Fin and Beki have toast
and Stefan has a full Monteneggran brekie of 5 ostrich eggs with ham and
ketchup.

10.00 We download weather- we have a satellite phone on board which acts
like a modem allowing us to download Grib (weather) files for cyberspace.
Even 1000miles from land we are connected. But its somewhat $$$ so no
surfing of internet, just weather, email & blogs. Grib files confirm large
are of calm mid Atlantic and we are right in the middle of it- our plan
remains the same- to make 44degrees West by Monday to pick up 15-20knot
winds and hopefully a sail all the way to St Lucia. We have 340miles of
6knots winds over the quarter to endure before the wind utopia is upon us.
We can and we will do it!

11.00 FISH on!! I rush to the rod and 20minutes of battle in the tropical
heat i manage to land an enormous Tuna. Unfortunately head chef Fin
dismissed my catch as too small and we threw him back!..

11.30 FISH on!! Our lucky lure is working his magic- a squid lure i picked
up in Las Palmas for 10$ he was pink and white but now due to battle
scarring he's half the size and white with one eye but this sorry state has
seemed to attract more fish as the more beaten up lucky becomes the more
bites he gets!//.. and this is a big one!.. we slow the boat down,,,from 4
knots to 2! and battle commences.. this one is indeed bigger and i
desparately don't want to lose him as my reputation is at stake.. 20mins
later i land a 2foot Mahi Mahi aka Dorado . Becki and Stefan quickly swing
into action, Becki jumping on the fish and stunning him with straight whisky
to the gills *appologies to the Scottish yacht Skara Brae who have ran out
of whisky & wind* I apply the mallet to the head and Stefan shocks the fish
to death with his high pitched Monteneggran screams of shocking delight!..
This one gets Fin's seal of approval for the galley and within minutes he is
filleted ready for cooking up a feast for dinner.

13.00 Lunch- Yesterday's catch of the day Dorado with sesame seed ^ wasabi,
salad. mmmm with head Chef Fin we really are having a Gastranomic Adventure!

Afternoon- chill/ read / siesta

Late afternoon- Sundowner time as the sun begins to set in another awesome
display of the beauty of mother nature we enjoy our favorite time of day-
The guys break out the Gin & Tonic and I the coke zero with plenty of ice
and lemon. Mustique puts some music on, one of Becki's sunset playlists and
we have a mid Atlantic sunset party, dancing on the aft deck, singing along
to Maroon 5, Take That, Snow Patrol, Frank Sinatra, East17!, Jack Johnson
and on.... At this point we normally have a game of cards, Shithead, or
Queen bitch,, but the guys are fed up with me winning all the time so i
teach them a new game, The Love/Hate game- it goes down a storm, and we has
so much fun i don't even remember who won.!!.. I love this time of day as we
bond as a crew, live in the moment and really we are enjoying the journey.

Sunset 18.45 - As we are sailing west our sunset is later every evening. We
also have the power to adjust time out here in the middle of nowhere. We
have 3 more hours to wind back before we reach the Caribbean so we made a
crew decision to adjust 1 hour on Sunday making Sunday 25hours long- we plan
to have a Sunday roast lamb dinner with Rob's mince pies for desert so its
going to be an awesome day so why not make it an hour longer!.. who could
say no to a bonus hour of awesome! We are also going to save an hour for our
day of arrival and make that a 25hour day giving us an extra hour party in
St Luicia!.. We all watch the sunset.. enjoying our own dose of serenity.
All day long our world is 50shades of blue and every evening each of those
shades melt into a magnificent, unique work of mother nature's finest,
priceless, timeless art, for our eyes only. The sun sets with a crescent
moon just above with Venus shining brightly making it another high level of
awesome to experience.

19.00 Dinner- Fresh catch of the day, Mahi Mahi served with sliced Babuska
potatoes with Fin's magic touch.. delightful.,..

20.00 - We drop the kite for the evening and prepare for another night of
motoring in calm/swell conditions.

21.00 Cup of tea and Scottish shortbread as darkness is upon us and the
stars come out to twinkle.

Off to bed for few hours siesta before watch at midnight.

Even with light airs a day in the life of Mustique, mid Atlantic, is rather
awesome!


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