And so we are into another week on Endeavour III. It feels simultaneously like we stepped onboard yesterday and also that we have always lived here, in a nautical version of the Truman show.
Last night I was supposed to be cooking, but made the rogue decision to cook a meal I didn’t actually know the recipe for, so whilst the rest of the crew were busy changing the sails at sunset, I would pop my head up through the hatch at 5 minute intervals asking Imara how to cook rice, how to cut ginger and how to steam aubergine, which she helpfully answered in between wielding ropes. The resulting teriyaki aubergine with egg fried rice and crushed peanuts went down a treat.
Monday morning started at 6am for me with the first watch. When we left the canaries 6-7.30am was the sunrise watch, but as we move west passing through time zones and boat time stays on UTC, sunrise is now nearly 9am and sunset around 8pm. I’ve had worse Monday mornings than staring at the stars for an hour and a half whilst listening to a podcast and counting shooting stars.
Back to bed for couple of hours before waking up to the sounds of a heated political discussion. Breaking it up to wish Imara happy birthday, and give her some presents and cards. Huge shout out to Daniella for the inspired tattoo body art, we can’t wait to get going with it. Kevs out of date bar of Swiss chocolate that had travelled in the boat from Turkey was a slightly less welcome gift. Scrambled eggs on sourdough toast for breakfast fuelled us for a boat workout, featuring butternut squash and an 8L water bottle as weights.
A well-earned shower followed, and then it was time for lunch, featuring Spanish omelette (for once in my life I can truly say I wish Kev bought more of these), and a Greek salad made with the remnants of our fresh produce. When we left the boat was full to the brim of fruits and vegetables, but slowly these have dwindled and now the hanging baskets of apples and papaya have been replaced with onions, sweet potatoes and butternut squash.
With lunch cleared away, most of the crew retired for an afternoon siesta whilst Imara and myself were left on deck in charge, which had a similar feeling to being left home alone as a teenager. We enjoyed some hummus crisps and Turkish delight whilst watching Netflix on my phone, and questioned whether it would have been a simpler exercise to be in the same set up at home perhaps with a photo of the ocean Pinned up next to us. Nah, we agreed, that fresh sea breeze makes all the difference.
At sunset we gathered for birthday cake (fruit cake with white icing and ‘Imara’ spelled out in smarties courtesy of Hugh), 0.0% gin and tonics and the first of our ‘Ted talks’. I gave an amended version of the talk I gave at COP27 on the intersections between climate change and SRHR (Sexual and Reproductive, Health snd Rights), which sparked some interesting discussions.
It is slow cooked lamb for dinner this evening (fast cooked aubergine for me!) and apparently Kev has no mercy, as he ‘killed’ Imara with an onion in the galley (on her birthday, the cheek!). We cheers’d to Imara’s birthday and also to our official halfway point, as we have now done more miles than we have left. And the sun sets on another day at sea, and hopefully what has been a memorable birthday for Imara.
Natasha - 28th November
We have covered 185 miles in the last 24 hours.
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