Little Island - 384 hours

Beans mean Heinz. It’s strange how very small things take hold of your days in a big way on the boat. Now that our fresh food has practically all run out, I thought I would treat myself to a tin of baked beans, accompanied by a tortilla wrap to be rolled and dunked directly into the tin like a giant cartoon cigar. Deconstructed beans on toast is the dish, Mexican style. I’ve always loved baked beans. My mum loves to tell people how I fell asleep in them as a young child because I was so tired but determined to eat them. That love has stretched to adulthood. When I was working at OC Sport I’d have a tin of beans and four slices of toast for lunch every day, not only because it was delicious and nutritious but because it was tremendous value with very little admin on my part. 

After 18 days at sea, hair starts to accumulate all over the boat. Cat seems to shed a ridiculous amount of hair to the extent that I have to keep checking her crown for a bald patch. Gathering in corners, plug holes and on damp surfaces, they serve as a constant reminder of our need to deep clean the boat on arrival. I’d be skipping over the truth if I implied the only culprits were Cat’s hair. 

My final observation of the day is vulture neck. This is something I suffer with. My posture is fine until the neck, at which stage my head floats around like it has a mind of its own, which I suppose it does. Cat laughs at me for it all the time so I have been making an active effort to straighten it when I’m sitting. My mum also used to mention it, but I was a teenager then so naturally used to just tell her to shut up. Sorry mum. The problem is, sitting at the helm for hours on end is not conducive to good posture, especially when you have to brace the wheel and look to the windex on the top of the mast all of the time. I worry that all the effort I have been putting in has been undone. What is for sure is that my nose is in a consistently further west longitude than the rest of my body. I hope it waits for me when it arrive in St Lucia.

Martin