Sabine - sabine (118) ARC blog update 27 Nov 2022

Hello interweb friends, Captain Stape on sail boat Sabine right here (///undesired.disability.hastens)
A sunny start to the day reveals another boat AIS on the nav computer, which is exciting as it’s the first boat seen in 3 days. (By coincidence, 3 is also the number of ex-flying fish found in the front of the boat this morning! (Or is that ex-flying ex-fish?)) Then as promptly as it appeared, it vanished! Then re-appeared, then vanished again. This went on for several minutes and just as the crew were wondering if it’s the Flying Dutchman, they call up this mysterious vessel on the radio. We find out the boat is called Pen Kalet, and set sail 3 weeks ago from Brest heading to Martinique.
Different wind, different sails. The main is raised to 3rd reef and we set downwind ‘wing-on-wing’ with the Genoa. The PredictWind app tells us that the waves will get bigger and the winds higher, so Kia the skipper is playing it cautiously so that nothing breaks. We alter course a little to try and avoid the worst of what is coming our way over the next 24-48 hrs.
Jenny starts for about 2 hrs to keep the batteries topped up after Otto’s overnight attempt at flattening them, so more French Toast is made whilst we have the extra electrickery. Yum!
Richard and John have now come up with ideas for 4 new world-changing inventions, but then keep forgetting them and so after discussion, resolve to try and remember them later. I’m sure they’ll forget them all again… If they confided in me, I could repeat them on demand (or, more likely, for a small treat, or better yet, a cut of any profits!), but I keep quiet and don’t offer my services. If only they had some other means of recording these ideas, like, say, a pen and paper, or maybe tapping their thoughts into the many computers, iPads, iPhones etc. that are around…
Richard has just given me a message to include for Monday 28th: ‘Tell Olivia ‘Happy Birthday from Dicky’’.
A quick tidy up and re-arranging of some of the food in the various cubby-holes and some bell peppers that were passed their best are discovered. Needles to say, the boat lost a little more weight, and the cubby-hole was left open for the rest of the day to dry.
Questions are asked, my interweb friends, to which we have no answer. For instance, what are a group of flying fish (very common at the moment, although ‘flying’ is stretching it when compared to my own aerobatic prowess) called? A school? A shoal? Kia suggested that the crew are all wrong and it is, in-fact, a squadron!
With sails reset for a bumpy, windy night (or is that because of the pasta for dinner??), it’s time to say goodnight until next time.
This is Capt. Stape signing off with 1733nm to go. Ciao ciao squawk!