Crew Blog

Great fun on deck

06 February 2008

So we begin another mother watch where we try to guess the exact
proportions of porridge for the hungry crew, boiling a gooey mess hoping it
will morph into wholesome gloop in time for both the on and off watch.  Even
more challenging is to ensure we have sufficient slices of toast as we seem
to be going through more due to the luxury of having tinned butter we were
able to purchase in Singapore.

We’ve been banking on a strategy of going north east in the hopes that we
will capture stronger winds off the Manila coast.  It seems at the moment
that our gamble has paid off, we have an average of 27 knots gusting 35 so
have changed down to a number 2 Yankee with a couple of reefs in the main.
The change means that my partner in Mother watches Rick has now gone to the
foredeck leaving me to cope with the household duties alone! This wind and
weather is great news for all those on deck but not so good for the mother
watch as everything starts to throw itself at you or become irritatingly out
of reach.

Those above deck are having great fun as there are some bigger waves to
experiment surfing techniques - from below decks we can confirm some are
better than others. Most on deck activity is accompanied by some serious
yipping and laughter - anyone would think that they are at the theme park on
the latest stomach churning ride.  Those on off watch are experiencing a few
airborne moments of their own as the boat hurls itself through the now
darkness! We both cannot wait until it is our turn to helm through this dark
and windy night.

Maria & Rick