Race 3 - Day 13
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 13: Cape Town to Fremantle
13 November

The Voice of the Victualler returns after a silent Leg 2.

So to bring you up to speed with culinary life aboard Garmin... Leg 2 saw the retirement of some dishes (quinoa) and the introduction of some newbies to keep the chefs on their toes. Percy, the leg of Serrano ham from Liverpool jumped ship in Punte del Este to be replaced by his cousin Pedro who took up position strapped to a section of the mast within the cabin. Victualling for Leg 2 was a slightly simpler affair with only 19 days to cater for, with the highlight being a trip to the farmer's market for fruit and veg, accompanied by my Garmin compadre Jerry and a local taxi driver we befriended called Alvarro.

Cape Town presented more straightforward victualling for Leg 3 what with the usual multiple trudges round the Makro warehouse, but also the rather smart and inspirationally named “Pick n Pay” - a supermarket where you pick what you want and then pay for it – who would have thought it? In ongoing familial tradition, Pedro jumped ship in Cape Town and gave up his berth for the imaginatively named Peter, who adorns our more veggie meals in order to sate the carnivores such as last night's mushroom stroganoff.

Yesterday marked an important milestone in our onboard culinary development. We had finally run out of the fabulous Wright's bread mixes (just add water) that we brought from the UK – actually made in glamourous Ponders End in North London, but alas not exported to the far flung parts of the globe we are touring. So it came to the victualler's chef day to bite the bullet and make bread from scratch with flour and yeast. Crew feedback was positive and hence the bar has been set and will no doubt be jumped by successive chefs.

Bon apetite

Toby

PS. Again many thanks to my partner Charlie, whose holiday to see me in Cape Town turned into a victualling assistance exercise. X