Another beautiful calm day out here on the North Atlantic for WIDAGO and her crew. We have had the parasailor flying all day, with wispy winds of 8-10 on our tail. Not much to see out here except a random buoy...no turtles, no fish, no whales, nada. The good news is at this rate we should arrive in time for Father's Day.
Remarkably, the boys really have yet to get restless. Even after 11 days confined to a few hundred square feet, no one has dared come to me whining, "I'm bored.". They manage to keep themselves occupied in a variety ways:
1. Food - first and foremost the epicenter of our daily life. I posted a very rudimentary dinner schedule, really for myself, providing the day's dinner concept. It pains me to plan out that much, but I found it somewhat useful in times of exhaustion. Especially the exhaustion that comes from answering the same question, every day, "Mom, what's for dinner?".
2. Child Labor - some people might say it's cheap, but I have sinking suspicion those people don't factor in the cost of food, clothing, braces, education, bail, and life insurance. Now that these guys are old enough to contribute to the cause, our family government has turned to communism, where everyone works and the benevolent dictator doles out resources. I, of course, am exempt from this. Needless to say, the fellas all take turns during the day and early evening on watch at the helm. Dinner KP duty rotates daily. Rooms are tidied and clothes put away. Fishing lines let out & managed.
3. Reading - we should have bought stock in Amazon. So long as they can choose their own books, these boys will stay up all night reading. Enough said.
4. Gaming - I thought I would have to drop the hammer on this one, but given enough freedom, the boys seem to have a decent balance in this arena. They still play Minecraft until their eyes bleed, but now have found SimCity. Perhaps we have some future city planners on board.
5. Rough Housing & General Tomfoolery - you really can't avoid it. We have minimized the running on deck and swinging from the stanchions, but there is really little you can do. Today's game consisted of one "player" being punched by another, while the third was the "stopwatch", counting out loud to ten Mississippi. Tomorrow the results will come in as they compare the number and color of each other's bruises.
Hopefully tomorrow will bring fresher winds as we inch our way closer to Horta.
-Ali
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