Cleone - Leg 17 Day 8 - Routine

 

Why has Alex taken so long to read his novel?

 

We divide our day into three-hour watches, with a cycle of three hours on, three hours off and three hours on stand-by.  But it never works out quite like that, there are always extra things to be done, especially during the daylight hours.  The most demanding day is supper-cooking day, and the three day cycle from this day goes like this:

 

From 6 until 9 am you are on watch, keeping a look-out whilst steering the boat, trimming the sheets (adjusting the sails) and filling in the log every hour.  Technically you are then off duty until 3pm, but from then on it's all go.  Your three hour stint on deck-watch until 6pm is followed by three busy hours when you prepare and cook the meal, serve the cocktails, and wash-up.  If you are lucky and nothing has gone wrong, you can crash-out at 9 pm, but you are back on watch again at midnight until 3 am!  And maybe you'll follow this with 6 hours off, but straight after your 9 till 12 noon watch you are the lunch man.  After that, you are relieved of domestic chores for a whole day, after which the routine repeats itself.

 

So in theory there should be enough time for enough sleep during the 24 hour period, and in practice this is generally the case.  But sleep never comes in one long unbroken eight or nine hour chunk as some of us would like!  The chances are that some of the many other routine or non-routine chores will intrude.  For instance, we do try and keep Cleone reasonably clean.  Norfy's great at the routines of this nasty job, but there are plenty of ad-hoc opportunities too, such as when potatoes start to rot in the bilges, yeast dumps itself into the fridge and blocks the drain, beer explodes in the locker or herbs and spices take flight in the middle of a rough night.  There are two radio shows every day, with the Skipper acting as compere one day in three, or more often on some legs.  If he is not off watch at the time, someone else has to fill in for him.  And systems cannot be left to themselves or they get bolshie; there are bilge checks to be done, "personal admin" to be attended to, such as teeth and body cleaning (and other things, too, though most of us have given up shaving for the Duration).   We also find time to write blogs, read e-mails, recharge our mobile phones and i-pods (and to listen to them), and generally keeping in touch with the world; as well as e-mails via the Iridium SATPHONE, even in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the BBC World Service comes through crystal clear from their transmitter either in Africa or one of our Incian Ocean Islands

 

Then of course there is sailing the boat.  Helped by the Auto Pilot, the watch should be able to reef the Genoa and Mizzen single handed, but it's actually much quicker and more convenient done with two people.  And anything that involves a trip out of the cockpit and forward to the mast or foredeck  means two people on deck, and coordination of work between foredeck and cockpit.  This could be for any task like taking in or letting out a reef in the mainsail, poling out the genoa or sorting out a loose rope or anything else that's gone awry.

 

So that's why Alex does not read as fast anymore.

 

The wind has softened a bit, and the huge swells of yesterday afternoon (not that big, according to the Skipper) are half the size and everthing is much easier today.  We 'only' made 159 miles yesterday.  Still, that's not bad, and we are in the Indian Ocean still and who gives a shi (no, not that word, Ed) about Gordon Brown, the Stockmarket, failing banks and all that other stuff?