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Quasar V of Lleyn - Quasar Log



Friday 10th October

STARRY, STARRY NIGHT!

Wind dropped a bit during the night and we were wallowing a little, but picked up during the day and we have been making 6.5 to 8 knots since. It is now 3.30 am Saturday and we are now 703 nm from Cocos, which should take just over 4 days. Position as of now is 10.13 South and 108.39 West and 176 miles from Christmas Island. It looks as though we will pass it in the dark, unless we slow down and run with Malcy's idea of getting out the dinghy on the leeward side photograph us off the Island and make the picture into Xmas cards!

Spent most of this morning asleep having finished a watch at 8.30. Made some bruschetta for lunch had another doze, made some fruit salad and started preparing tonight?s offering of chicken chilli and basil. I seem to be getting slower as each day I spend 2 to 3 hours in the galley just for dinner. In between I made a few phone calls and bought some more Iridium time (the Sat phone - also used for emails).

Its neither easy nor an exact science provisioning the boat for a passage. I was working on the basis that after Darwin we wouldn?t be able to buy much till Mauritius. That was a wrong assumption as Carrefour in Bali was extremely well stocked and prices were OK except for wine (50% more than at home). The first thing I did in Darwin (as always) is to see what meats are available and after preparing them by taking all the fat, rubbish and packaging off (which saves about 30% space and saves preparation time later) and cram the maximum into the freezer. I particularly stocked up on filet steak as this is often not easily obtainable, whereas chicken is. I was going to try some kangaroo, which I had on my Blue Mountain trip, but bottled the idea!

On a daily basis it is then a case off rotating the meats and trying to use up the fresh ingredients into a recipe, which you can't always pre-determine until you know what's available in the shops. We had the added complication of not carrying longer lasting fruit and veg, such as potatoes, onions, apples and oranges as we understood these had to be ditched because of quarantine regs before entering Cocos. However it seems they will be bonded instead. With everything we have on board I guess we could keep going for at least 3 months!

We have sailed mostly on WARC with 5 or 6 people on board, so 4 does make things a lot easier catering wise, but on this trip aside from plain cooked steak and roast beef, I am trying for my own and everyone else's interest to do a different recipe every night. It may not be possible over the next 20 plus days, but we will see!

Enough of this stuff! There is no obligation to read it, but if you do it's a bit of an insight into how things run on the boat. I will expand on other aspects soon in the absence of anything else to report. So in the meantime its back on deck to warm winds, a starry night, an IPOD and maybe Don McClean's Vincent!


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