Sorry folks about the lack of news for the last couple of days but here we are now. Its been an eventful couple of days and we have seen many sights sea, flying fish, sun and stars which funnily enough is what we saw for the first five days. As we approach the half way mark we look forward to different sights of sea, flying fish sun and stars and we know the difference will be these are Caribbean laid back no problems man sea, flying fish, sun and stars so totally different. Dan has finally perfected the 24 hour siesta but the unfortunate side effect is he does have to ask every night at 7.00 “Is that the sun or moon?” – Well Dan “its still the moon like it was last night”. As we get through our fresh food The Vegetable Turners job is diminishing and is now replaced with trying to remember where he stored everything, not easy as a 64 year old who lived through the 60s so last night we had a very nice tinned peach curry, as I write he is busy pulling up floorboards and seats of lockers and mumbling to himself looking for coffee which if he cant find Ross will go into meltdown (again) . Kevin is in 7th heaven and spends two hours everyday producing spreadsheets from the rally control results. Ross Uncle Albert Harwood continues to detox and is now almost human. Roger wonders how he ever thought this was a good idea and can he get his money back?
So a sad couple of departures. Yet another fishing lure had met a grisly fate. We had a fish take a lot of line and we fought him for a while but eventually he got off well I Say off when we got the lure back on board whatever it was had bitten it in half complete with steel wire trace so really quite glad he got away. The other casualty yesterday was Big Ass the spinnaker. We were just about to get it down ready for the night when we got it wrapped around the forestay not just once but twice – no half measures on this boat no sirree – we thought it looked impressive and wondered whether we could pass it off as a Tracey Emin modern art piece but Ross did point it would be quite short lived and the spinnaker was about to totally shred so spoilt all our fun by cutting the Tack Line (that was my best Dyneema!!!) that was quite spectacular as the sail was now flying at right angles from the top of the mast and half way up the forestay. I have always thought the hilarious when it happens to other people half way up the Solent but somehow wasn’t seeing the funny side this time half way across the Atlantic, I was also giving deep consideration to the effect we having on my laundry bill, Ross being a proper sailor, was preparing to go up the mast to sort the problem. However the Itchycoo Parkers, not being proper sailors but having a lifetime experience of sorting out cock ups, thought hang on we haven’t tried the boat hook – no problem is too big a boat hook cant help solve it – so we launched Ross off the foredeck with boat hook in hand and he managed to hook the clew and with the the combined weight of three men and a lot of swearing managed to collapse the sail which we then unwrapped by driving round in circles – no mean feat in itself in the swell. We broke our baot rule and broke out the medicinal gin just to steady nerves as Dan put it I wanted to have ago at getting a Spinnaker up but that wasn’t what I had in mind for getting it down again.” Man of few words is our Dan but everyone is one is a .gem Anyway all is well and today is a day of stitching and glueing Big Ass back together which with any luck they wont manage before we get to St Lucia!!! “Worse things happen at sea” as my old granny used to say “But Gran we are at sea!” “Oh well you’re knackered then” “Thanks Gran”.
Apart from all the fun and games we have been learning Ross from just call me great Harwood how to make the best use of waves and hand steered the boat for most daylight hours rather than use the Auto pilot of Warren and ross has taught us well as we have overall improved our speed so all feeling pretty chipper about that. Itchycoo Park actually hums when we get her in the groove, one or two of the crew have a theory about it which Im not going to go in here on this forum!! We continue to eat extremely well with fresh baked bread in the mornings life is OK………….just don’t get downwind of us as we are preserving water. The absence of internet access makes for some great conversations such as trying to remember the name of the actor who played Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland and played the side kick to Robin Williams. I took us three days to get that one and I shall let you know tomorrow
Those who may be following our progress will notice (or not actually care) but we are starting to go a bit more Southerly and I can assure you this is deliberate as we pursue some stronger wind and thank our very own shore based Michael Fish in the shape of Kenny small but perfectly formed Wingrave for his weather and routing daily e mails.
We anticipate reaching our half way point tomorrow morning and preparations for the party continue and as the Vegetable turner forgot to bring a costume suitable attire will be supplied………I think he will look reeeaaal pretty…………..come on It has been a couple of weeks!!!!
Talk to you all again tomorrow when hopefully we will be on the incoming leg!
The Ithcycoo Parkers
Feed the swans with a bun in the park
Ps Ann if the spinnaker is totally knackered can I buy a new one with a big Itchycoo Park logo on it????