Rock and roll, baby. Rock aannnd roolllll! Well here we are on Day Three with around 2,300 miles to go to the way-point off St Lucia. It is a beautiful sunny afternoon and the sea is heaving outside - deep blue and rolling white breaking large waves which El Mundo takes in her stride. We are bowling along at around 8-9 knots with deep rolling from side to side.
Lunch is over and the crew are either asleep or on watch immersed in their Kindles! This the first blog from El Mundo as we have taken a little while to get into our stride after a very hectic and boisterous start. We were about 45 seconds behind the gun which we were pleased with; 45 seconds over the 2,700 miles to St Lucia is not too much to make up.
In the first two days we experienced heavy seas and strong winds. With two crew aboard who are unfamiliar with the boat we decided to double up the watches for the first night which means a maximum of only three hours sleep. With the rough weather nobody got much sleep but we are still talking to each other and things are much improved today after re-introduction last night of the single watch system, giving a maximum six hours sleep for everyone.
Seasickness seems to be over for those who suffer and everyone is well. There are four crew aboard - 'cheque book' Jonathan (that's me the owner, hence the cheque-book!), 'ice man' Nick (the skipper who keeps us all in hand and ensures El Mundo performs to the max - nothing seems to faze him, hence the ice man), 'ward sister' Dee who looks after our medical well-being (so far all she has had to deal with is a split nail), and 'camera man' Robert, the ship's photographer (who has taken a lot of pictures but seems unprepared to let any of us see any of them, muttering how difficult it is to take photos on a heaving boat). So things are going well so far. Tomorrow is another day and I plan to get the fishing rod out to see if we can supplement the seemingly six tons of food we have aboard.
One of the challenges on a long trip like this is to keep oneself and the crew amused. We play a variety of games but hey, why should we have all the fun. So we thought we would set readers of this blog a few challenges. At the end of the trip e-mail me your answers ([email protected]) marked for my (Jonathan's) attention and a bottle of champagne will be sent to the reader with the most correct answers. So here is the first question.
Question No 1.
Two judo experts take a bow and the match begins. One is wearing a brown belt and the other a black belt. After a long tussle, the black belt judoist has the most points and is declared the winner, despite the fact that during the entire contest no man threw the other to the ground. Explain.
Have fun!
See you tomorrow.
Love to evryone who matters to me, Nick, Dee and Robert - you know who you are.
This is El Mundo - oooooooover aaaannnnd out!