7 days at sea! A big milestone for the whole crew.
Many people asked before we left, 'will you get bored? what will occupy your time? reading? sunbathing? sleeping?'.
The reality is, running a boat 24 hrs a day involves a number of daily tasks! Power checks; running the generator; running the watermaker; 5 x daily rig checks; managing the perishable stores; cooking; cleaning the saloon (where the majority of us sleep), the heads and the cockpit; washing and drying clothes, the daily radio net (our opportunity to check in with the rest of the fleet), Steph's sextant sights; sun creaming Andy's enormous back and boat maintenance. And of course, our primary purpose, sailing the boat!
Following yesterday's excitement with the hydrovane, the wind and swell have now dropped giving some added respite to all. The relatively calmer conditions have allowed us to shake out all the reefs and carry a full main and genoa. If this continues the spinnaker will get an airing tomorrow too! The reduced wind and swell also gave Tom the opportunity to scamper up the mast, add further chafe patches to the main (to minimise wear caused by the spreaders) and carry out a more detailed rig check.
The calmer conditions also allowed for.. the big 7 day at sea / entering the Cape Verde Basin / any excuse required PARTAY!
Whist the re-cycling wear only dress code did not materialise, the day was full of frivolities. A lung bursting sing-a-thon this morning kicked off by some Fleetwood Mac and ranging further to 'Chop Suey', 'the Summer of '69' and even '500 miles' by the Proclaimers had the crew in high jinx from the get go. The day ended with our livers being reminded of their purpose as we shared a bottle of wine (or two) in a calm sea, under an unbelievable sky full of stars, on a boat, further and further from anywhere else..
Gauntlet out.
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