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Merlyn III - Day 5 - Mother's Work is Never Done



Not much to report on the sailing front; the  sea has been  glassy calm all day with no  wind. We trundle on at 8  knots towards our decision point off the Cape Verde Islands, no one else in sight. A pic of the captain  at work taking the noon  sight has been posted. Please note the highly technical instrument in his assistant David’s left hand. So on to domestic matters.
 
Every five days one of us is not on sailing watch - instead we are on ‘Mother’ watch and standby. This does not mean  a  day of rest. Preparing breakfast, lunch, and tea; tidying and cleaning the boat; and doing any other chores means that mother is usually run off her feet – although with  the water rationing, there is no clothes washing and washing up is a communal effort in sea water. Beards are beginning to establish themselves.
 
The culinary standards are being maintained: Christopher cooked a deliciously-spiced Moroccan lamb with cous-cous on Tuesday; and Iain served up a recherche beetroot and celeriac gratin with sausages last night – eaten to the strains of Brahms’ German Requiem, which seemed strangely appropriate to the moonlit windless ocean. .
 
Our first flying fish has invited himself on board. He was turned into bait, but from the imprecations on the stern just now I gather that yet another “fish at least as big as this” has just broken off yet more line. Sashimi  and ceviche still seem a distant  dream.
 
Despite the frustrations morale remains high!
 
Jonathan


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