can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Free & BrEasy - Not a Drop to Drink



We are less than 400 miles from Salvador, Brazil after a light wind, slow passage from St Helena. It has been a delightfully calm and serene sail for the last 13 days and nights. There has been a bright full moon to guide us to Brazil and a few sunsets to remember. All moments which we should be, metaphorically, bottling for later consumption.

We were sat around chewing the sail cloth, as we frequently do, when it suddenly hit us, with a degree of shock, that there were only two months left of circumnavigation before the end in St Lucia! We were in the final stages of the 15 month adventure and would soon be at home, uncorking those memory bottles! But we are not there yet and there is still a lot of sailing, not to mention the Salvador carnival.

For the last week we have been appreciating the situation faced by the Ancient Mariner. Our water maker gave up the ghost three days out of St Helena. Free & Breasy normally uses about 100 litres of drinking water each day, which must be replenished by the reverse osmosis water maker. The main consumption is the two toilets plus washing dishes. There is a shower on board but even we limit it's use! We immediately started lowering the bucket into the 'Not a Drop to Drink' and using sea water for flushing the toilets, washing the pans, cooking and even cleaning teeth. Marco had already led the way in sea water baths. At a stroke we have been able to conserve our 300 litre supply and there is no danger of running out of drinking water but it has been a good lesson in conservation.

The great fishing competition is nearly over with the score at Roger 0 ; Marco 1. After trailing up to 4 lures across nearly 4000 miles of Atlantic Ocean we have only been able to catch one Tuna (Yes - Roger's favourite!). Roger has had quite a few bites but is suffering from terminal line breakage with severe lure loss. One giant Mahi Mahi leapt 8 foot in the air with joy, after freeing itself from Roger's line. Other boats have reported a lack of fish so maybe they are just not there. Marco has an alternative theory. He has noticed that the flying fish fly higher and further than their comrades in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Maybe the larger fish have to be smarter to catch the flying fish and are therefore too smart to be fooled by a plastic lure with a great big hook. It's amazing what ingenuity is employed when fisherman try to account for 'the one that got away'!

To make up for the lack of fish we have been turning to comfort foods and started eating comfort foods. Marco makes a mean Marmalade Tart on a short bread biscuit base. Plum and apple crumbles, pancakes and fruit salads have also helped the fishing blues. One day, while enjoying the sunset sweet, we started talking about what we had learnt from the circumnavigation, and Marco told us a story about a rich Italian playboy. This man was tired of the comments from his well to do parents that he was lazy, always drunk and wasting his life away. He decided to prove them wrong by circumnavigating the globe. He bought a boat, learnt how to sail and went off on a solo voyage. It took him three years to go round the globe during which he visited many exotic places and was welcomed by wonderful people all over the world. At the end of the three years his parents asked what he had learnt. "It's so difficult to answer that question unless you too have circumnavigated" he said with a far off look. "The days lost on your own in the enormous oceans with only the sun to talk to. The nights where the light of the moon shadows every wave and shines a path to sail over. Lying alone on the deck, gazing at the countless stars, wondering what is the meaning of life. After three years I finally understood everything. How stupid I was. Only an idiot would go off for three years to do something so useless and senseless when he could have achieved the same at home in luxury!"

Not sentiments shared by the World ARC circumnavigators! We all look forward to arriving in port when we can exchange the salty 'Not a Drop to Drink' for the alcoholic 'Lots of Drops To Drink'. Cheers!


Previous | Next