Photos are of Carl, Cobin and Talia. The bright, sunny ones are from the day before yesterday, before the weather turned squally and windy.
Today has been another busy day. I attempted school but eventually called a “Wave Day” because we had too many things to keep track of AND keep kids motivated. It started pouring rain, dishes and books started flying because of the waves and we had to move things inside so they wouldn’t get wet.
Josh was on lunch duty but, after finally feeling like himself again in the period of calm weather, his ability to be inside went downhill with the worsening weather. Quiche was on the menu today and so we were making quiche. About 75% of the way through our preparations, as I was pouring the very liquify, sloshy mixture into the crust to put in the oven, Joe came in and asked if it was the best day to make quiche.
I was quite annoyed and told him it wasn’t a very helpful thing to ask, since Talia and I had been balancing and chopping and catching and sliding and slipping, along with our ingredients, all morning. But he did have a point. I briefly considered scrapping it all to make pasta but what would we do with the egg mixture? We are down to the last of our eggs and fresh produce so I didn’t want to toss it all.
We thought it might be OK once they were contained within the oven. I finished pouring them and put them in the oven, where the egg mixture proceeded to slosh out of the pans with each oncoming wave. After a few uncomfortable moments, Talia asked, “Are we just going to pretend it’s not happening or not look or . . .?”
I took them out of the oven and Talia and I did another balancing act involving hot pans, sliding containers, and unstable footing as the waves jolted us all over the place. Somehow we managed to pour the egg mixture back into a bowl. I cooked it in a pan like an omelet, then poured it back into the still-baking crusts. Quite a while later, when everyone was close to starving, we served them quiche and they proclaimed it delicious. Talia was the biggest fan, claiming that all the sliding had introduced even more air into them, making them exceptionally light and fluffy.
Now we’re bashing into the waves with 23 knots of apparent wind, doing 10-14 knots with jib and some number of reefs in the main (I’ve lost track but know Jpe recently shook one that we should probably put back in).
Oh, and somewhere in the day, a hatch didn’t get properly dogged (shut with latches) so the lower bunk that Talia and Josh are sharing got soaked. The waterproof sheet came through this time and only a small corner of the mattress was wet. So I changed thre sheets and we will do laundry in Mauritius.
Both heads also took waves in them that sounded like someone just dumped a bucket of water in them (which someone in the shape of a wave did). Cobin wipes his up but it was still drenched. Then we realized the waves were bashing the emergency hatch in the head with enough force that the water was spraying through the seal in the window. I taped a trash bag over it until Joe woke from his nap and actually fixed it. Hopefully that means our chances of sinking tonight are reduced :)
I’m late for watch - tomorrow we should reach shelter in the lee of Rodrigues Island!
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