More of the same, and more to come.
We work in various time-zones on board. Our log is kept in UTC
(Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or ZULU time for the military folks), Rally Time is
the local time at our start point (Cocos; UTC plus 6 hours and 30 minutes - how
inconvenient) and there is also Ship's Time. On board, our routine is
geared to the latter, which varies according to where we are. Every
15 degrees of longitude around the earth (east or west) represents a time change
of minus or plus an hour. So at 90 degrees east of Greenwich we are in
Time Zone GMT plus 6 hours (we are ahead of you now - remember the dreaded lost
day when we tripped over the International Date Line?). Changing our
clocks as we go on means that our day more or less accords with sunrise and
sunset, and it means that when we arrive in Mauritius (GMT plus 4 hours), we
won't suffer Sail Lag and we will (or should) already have our watches correctly
set.
Keeping track of these different times is difficult - the Skipper rang his
wife at three in the morning during one stop-over which was, to say the least,
very unpopular! But the Skipper thinks he's cracked it now. He keeps
one GPS on ZULU time, the other on Rally Time and the Ship's Clock and his own
watch on Ship's time. He's promised to change the time today to the more
convenient GMT plus 6 hours, and the crew (and others) wait with baited breath to
see whether he gets his radio schedule at the right time or not. And they
are also interested to see who gets the extra half-hour tacked onto his
watch. Minutes spent horizontal are at a premium at the moment.
Meanwhile, we are still rattling along at seven knots or so, with the wind
pulsing at around 25 knots. In the early hours of the morning, the Skipper
was obviously bored; he let the full Genoa out and he shook out the reef in the
Mizzen. Needless to say, this was a short-lived strategy. A bare
half-hour later he was struggling to re-furl the Genoa, and replace the reef in
the Mizzen. It's always easier to unreef than reef, and the former is
often regretted at leisure.
The Ginger Garlic Beef Stir Fry was very popular with the punters, though
the Damaged Lip brigade found the Soy Sauce a bit hard on the inside
of the mouth. Nevertheless, we all survived and pronounced it
delicious. And Alex is hard at his mysterious work again in the Galley as
I type this - a special for lunch is in the offing, but the traditional Cold
Beer is alarmingly absent. Chris is doing the Skipper's trick at the
helm, so I must stop and relieve him.
It's been classic trade-wind sailing (again) and we are another 167 miles
to the good!
All well with us, and best wishes to
everyone,
James, Norfy (Chris) and Alex
Yacht Cleone