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Starblazer - 15/03/2014 – A mixed day



The day’s run to noon was only 127 miles, not quite what we wanted. (NQW3)
On the plus side, we weren’t forced as far south as on previous days.

On Thursday evening we took the decision to put the clocks back by one hour,
ship’s local time, on Friday morning. This was to ensure we have breakfast
after sunrise and the sun has set well before the start of the evening watch
system. We now have three clock times on board: the ship’s clock is kept in
GMT; for this leg the radio net and our logbook entries are based on
Galapagos time, GMT-6 which is the same as Mexico and, I think, Minnesota;
ship’s local time, which is what our watches are set to, is now GMT-7, the
same as Denver according to my watch. There is a lot of opportunity for
confusion!

During the afternoon we were engulfed by quite a heavy shower and the radar
showed that it was part of an extensive system so John decided to have a
shower. Of course you can guess what happened, he was all soaped up when
the rain reduced to not much more than a drizzle! Fortunately I’d collected
some rainwater in a bowl so he finished rinsing off with that. I’d decided
I needed a hair wash but only got damp all over so gave up! I little later
we had another shower and this time I got as far as getting shampoo in my
hair before the rain reduced to a drizzle. The final rinse water came out of
the tap, however we used very much less fresh water than if there had been
no rain.

My major activity of the day was cooking. At lunchtime I decided to make a
Middle Eastern tuna salad with hummus to fill tacos, not exactly authentic
but I don’t have any Pitta breads on board. I’d never made hummus before but
was quite pleased with the result. Now I’ve got to learn to make mayonnaise
as I used up the last of the Hellman’s. I experimented with making a rice
pudding in the pressure cooker but it wasn’t an unqualified success. Next
time I need either less rice or more milk. Ideally I think it should have
been cooked under minimum pressure but my small boat pressure cooker isn’t
that clever, it’s all or nothing. We spent Happy Hour below, hiding from
the showers and the very wet cockpit, though it dried out enough to have
dinner up there. I’d lost all enthusiasm for food prep by then so dinner
was pasta with a sauce made from a hot salsa dip, which had started
fermenting, and a tin of hotdogs, quick, tasty and filling.

Joyce



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