Mary Doll - Day 15 - Homely tastes and nae pals

Late day 14 we finally came out of the storm that had us sailing cautiously for the last few days. We took the chance to spread our wings (sails), which was great but meant that we pulled away from the ARC companions (sailing yachts Bluemoona and Tilda) that had been accompanying us over the previous days.

Even when they were usually too far off to get a visual on them, it has been reassuring to see them on our AIS (positioning) system and have an occasional chat on VHS radio. In a storm, in the middle of the ocean, it is good to know that there are others out there and that we have each other’s backs. The chats often end with a promise to meet up for some pints in St Lucia - I hope we do, it will be good to put faces to distant voices on a crackly radio line. For now, we steadily pulled away from them until they were on our AIS no more and out of range for those VHS chats, fully expecting to catch up with new ARC friends.

Letitia and Lewis excelled on the final watch of the night shift. They decided to prepare bread rolls and brownies, and so began a day of gastronomic delights.

Breakfast of Granola or Muesli for those that wanted any. Then bacon rolls for brunch, mine with butter on the bottom and brown sauce on the top, literally dripping with flavours from home.

Caroline and Lewis pooled their skills, secret recipes and available ingredients, with some flair, to produce an extra special helping of fresh Mac & Cheese for dinner. Lewis’s brownies for desert were baked to perfection and eaten fresh out of the oven, (not quite literally) putting the icing on the cake of a scrumptious day.

In the background we had fine weather and sailing, but nae pals. Not a single one in the full 24hrs. We are truly alone for the first time since the event began. That reassuring feeling from seeing others on AIS has been replaced with a small pang of disappointment when we glance at the screen and see that they is still no-one out there. Do others know something about the prevailing winds that we don’t? Have we taken a wrong turn somewhere? Is the pack just thinning out? What is going on?

While we cruised along, our average speeds kept nudging up, which became the new game - “guess when another 0.1 mph will be added to the average speed” - Caroline the Mathematician is the clear master of this game.

Caroline and I found the opportunity that calmer waters provided to clean the inside of the yacht, for the first time in too long. The floors and handrails are sparkling once more. This believe it or not really has made it into the day’s list of highlights.

One new issue has arisen, there’s always one. The “Navionics” option on the AIS system has been lost - this has no impact today, but will be needed before we approach land in a few days time. Derek has tried hard to resolve the issue today but has had no joy, he will ask others about this tomorrow on the daily call.

The atmosphere on board has become noticeably more relaxed amid the calmer conditions and tastes of home, with our crew enjoying the simple pleasures that the universe is providing us with.

We are all still looking forward to that rum punch on arrival at Rodney bay though. Did I mention that before?

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