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Charm - To S Africa 5



Of all the things I thought we would be doing on the Indian Ocean, motoring in light winds is not something that had occurred to me. But here we are, and we’ve been motoring since the end of my watch last night when the main and the gennaker were flopping violently with each successive wave.

The wind is around 10 knots and we could sail but we would only go about 4 knots which is slower than we’d like. If we can keep our average speed above 6 knots, we will have a nice window to approach Richards Bay – winds and seas are forecast to be in the manageable range (15 to 30 knots, depending on when we arrive, with winds increasing the longer we wait). So we’ve had the engines running and various sails up to try to accommodate the weather.

Today we had fried rice for lunch and pork, mashed potatoes and cabbage salad for dinner. I made an apple crisp with almond paste layered on the crust (I’ve had the almond paste for longer than I care to admit and found a recipe inside the box for apple crisp so decided to finally use it). I mixed walnuts into the crisp topping and, in the absence of ice cream, mixed some powdered sugar into some crème fraiche I bought in Reunion when I couldn’t find ricotta. It worked well in lasagna and also is delicious with apple crisp.

The best part about all of this is that the kids ate the entire dessert without saying anything. I was about 95% sure that Cobin wouldn’t touch it (has only eaten pie once in his life but it was in the recent past) and that Tully would decline if she heard there were nuts. The appearance of a strange, unheard-of cream that wasn’t ice cream or whipped cream meant that I thought no one would let me put it on top. But all three asked for pie WITH cream and ate it. There must be some sort of virus going around that dramatically changes children’s eating habits. Either that or they were so immersed in their group Minecraft session that they just blindly ate the bowls of sweet gooey-ness in front of them.

Regardless, we are a happy boat. Carl is watching downloaded TV shows and Joe is arranging for repairs for when we arrive in Richards Bay.

School is going well as the kids prepare for a “School Show” for anyone who wants to attend. My mom and her friend Kay will be there and we will invite the other boats. The kids are doing mostly what they want with a few requests by me. Today Cobin built a science project that I had stocked before we left Colorado. I frantically downloaded and copied directions for various projects off Scitoys.com, ordered some of the obscure components and then did several runs to Home Depot to try to get all the needed supplies. I only had 65% confidence that I had all the needed parts for any project but I did for this one! Cobin has tried a few others and we always seem to be missing some key component or it just doesn’t work. But the floating magnet project using melted bismuth plates was a success! If you can make the show, you will see it!


Off to do my watch. 381 miles to go!

Photos of Cobin cooking bismuth and Tully watching from above, another maggot discovered in the rice, and the floating magnet tower!



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