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Mustique - Mustique.Arc2013.Day.4



SY  Mustique Blog Day 4
 
Life on board
 
This blog is written for the friends and family who are less familiar with the daily and nightly routines of a yacht sailing across the Atlantic.
There are 4 of us on the crew of Mustique,, a 66 foot Moody. We are a cross section of nationalities, skipper Fin (Irish), then Stefan (Montenegrin),  Scott  (Scottish of course) and Becki (English).
 
Sailing a yacht 24 hours per day for a number of weeks takes a considerable amount of organisation. For example, it is standard to run a watch system to ensure that there is always someone on deck driving the boat / making sure things are smooth sailing, but at the same time making sure everyone gets enough sleep. Our watch system fits the 12 hour day nicely into our 4 crew and consists of each crew member doing 3 hours on watch within a 12 hour period. So you have 9 hours within the rest of the day to rest / clean / /cook keep the person on watch company. This is working really well and spending a night watch on your own with just the moon and some shooting stars for fun is actually quite a pleasurable experience.
 
Meal times as you can imagine fit neatly around the watch system and are an integral part of the daily routine, sometimes being the highlight of the day! Most of the main dinners have been pre-cooked by Fin and Stef, then frozen, so it is simply a case of defrosting them. Eating on board a rolling, heeling yacht brings its own challenges,. so we are eating our dinners out of large tupperware bowls, meaning less chance of spillage!
 
In amongst the homecooked meals, we have a daily 'snack pack' - a pre-packed bag of surprise goodies such as sweets, cookies and chocolate. The daily opening ceremony of one of these snack packs can bring a frenzied excitement to what was previously a cold / wet / boring watch!
 
Little comforts like this, as well as the opportunity to hang a fishing rod off the back of the boat (OK so we're not really racing), going swimming on a still day like today, all become big events in the lives of 4 sailors at sea for a long time!
  
Highlight of the Day -  Finding a flying fish on deck this morning
 
Lowlight of the day- Becki leaving her cabin hatch open in a lazy attempt to wash her bedding without having to remove it from the bed. This also qualified her for the much heralded title of 'Plonker of the Day'.
 
Sea life spotted - Flying fish! A fish that flies! Or rather, a fish that flew - it was dead when we found it sunbathing on our deck.
 
Weather & sailing - We had some great wind yesterday, albeit from the wrong angle. Beating into the wind on an Atlantic crossing is rather rare so I am told...
 
24hr Log- 140nm (this is how many miles we sailed that day).
 
Amazing Facto of the Day- Basil plants can only fly short distances. And then they soil themselves (and the floor of our pretty boat)...
 
Food.snack of the day - Fin's Babooshka chicken thigh and veg. Delicious
 
Scott's daily excuse for not catching any fish- The sea is too deep here for fish.
 
Crew members who have eaten too many digestive biscuits- Fin, Stef, Scott and Becki.

 

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