It was suggested to me by someone reading at home that if one day I don’t have anything to report on, I should just say so and don’t write a log. Luckily for me (or maybe not?) my fellow crew members have up to now been a continuous source of entertainment, so there is always plenty to write about.
On the sailing preparations front, today there were multiple visits to the top of the mast, both by the local boat fixers and by the captain. Technically some new blocks should have been added, but whether that has happened remains unclear, so the captain is going up top tomorrow as well.
On the provisioning side, we had a very fruitful (pun intended) visit to the local market. We’d love to hear from our readers what they think about some of these fundamental questions:
- How many tomatoes are too many tomatoes? We purchased 50 large ones, ranging in color from bright red to deep green, hoping that they will slowly ripen as we cross the ocean. Janne though these were enough, but Major Gustaf and I think we may want to purchase some more. There is no such thing as too many tomatoes.
- How many kilos of avocados are needed to sail for 12+ days? We had heard that avocados could not be found anywhere in Mindelo, but somehow we stumbled upon the only market stand that had them and purchased all their supplies: 5.3kg! They are as big as and as hard as bowling balls right now, but Janne suggest putting some in the apple cabinet for quick ripening.
- Which apples last longer, red ones or green ones? Allegedly it’s the green ones, but we had to set up a tasting committee to decide which variety of apples we liked best. A panel of 4 crew members sampled 3 different apples (red and big, red and small, green and medium sized) to decide which variety we should stock up on. We all agreed that the red and big ones where quite soft and watery and hence would go bad fastest, but the tasting committee was split on green vs. small red apples. For “par condicio” (you can google this Latin expression frequently used in Italian), we decided to buy 20 of each.
- How many grapefruits are needed to keep the captain happy? The simple answer here is: One a day, which he eats for breakfast. However, what if you don’t know how many days you will be at sea? And even worse, what if we only found 3 grapefruits and were concerned about the captain not being well fed? His son CJ, who knows him well, suggested a simple solution. Find something, tell Ulrik it’s going to go off real soon (even if it’s not), and he will promptly eat it! The captain is known for eating all kind of food close to expiry rather than seeing it thrown out.
Speaking of provisions, the fishing committee continues to regularly debate what techniques they will use, what they hope to fish, the optimal boat speed to fish, etc. Those of us who don’t sit on the committee and who are starting to become skeptical of it have suggested that they should consult with some boats that have hitherto been successful in catching fish - because as of now our fishing committee is purely a theoretical committee. Anyhow, the committee was in session during dinner and soon the question was raised if how we should weight the fish that we will allegedly catch. Never have I seen such a heated debate, but then I remembered that “weight of fish = size of ego of fisher” , and it all made sense. Some suggested estimating the weight by immersing the fish in water (but what is the density of fish?) and others by using a block (aka pulley to non sailors) to build a makeshift scale. So much was at stake! Being the only woman, and the only one who won’t measure her own worth based on the weight of a dead fish, I self proclaimed myself chair of the weighing committee. It also happens that I have onboard one of those hanging scales used to weigh luggage to make sure one doesn’t get charged absurd overweight fees by airlines, so hopefully I will be assisted by an impartial instrument when I try to fairly measure the weight of all the fish that we will supposedly catch. I’ll believe it when I see it!
Over and out,
Mavi