Race 7 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Race 7 Day 4
28 February
Mother day… on our yacht doesn’t refer to the celebration day of all mothers, that comes in March. Here it corresponds to taking care of the stomach, digestion system and well-being of each and every crew member. A warm breakfast, lunch and dinner with some sweet delights will make the crew happy for sure, or at least a bit happier. Especially appreciated are warm drinks and nice freshly made cake available during a wet and windy night watch from 10pm to 2am or 2 to 6 am. Greengrocery and taking care of the food is also covered, in particular that rotten veggies find their shortest and quickest way to the sea, low side possibly, and ensuring that our cool boxes are justifying their name.
For us, bunk-buddies, this day was yesterday. For some background, it was a squally day with lots of gusts of wind. We were sailing upwind beside Taiwan at a speed of 12 knots and the yacht heeled over at about 45 degrees where a constantly fresh spring of water splashed down the main hatch. On the lunch menu for that day were wraps, while for the dinner we were challenged to prepare dory fish for 17. The preparation of these meals are certainly not an issue, unless as mentioned you are preparing and serving them at the yacht that is heeled at 45 degrees and for every move you make to reach for the toast or yogurts you have to hold yourself upright with a line that zig zags across the galley.
The breakfast was served as usual porridge, toast with all the spreads, except that we have already run out of vegemite and marmite. To show his serious dissatisfaction, our AQP has started to grow a 50s style moustache. Quite frightening, as it visibly grows from day to day. Then the lunch time debates, how to make wraps happy wraps? Even with varieties of spinach, garlic and wholegrain. After having had them a few times on the lunch menu already, you have to figure out a new chef’s version to make them attractive. We offered pate, creamy cheese, ham, boiled egg with all possible toppings that me, an Eastern European girl, has not heard of before. Mrs Balls, Frenchy’s mustard, brown sauce etc. We spent a decent amount of time chopping the carrots, cabbage and onions, trying to keep all these veggies in the bowl placed in the sink in order to prepare freshly made coleslaw that was served as a side dish. The preparation of the dinner turned out to be more challenging, in particular as the weather conditions became more harsh.
We decided to bring a taste of Asia to the boat for dinner and decided on Teriyaki fish and rice. delicious and relatively straight forward. Until you add in 45 degrees! Everything was chopped and ready and put into baking trays, fish added, sauce added, put it aside to take a cake out of the oven to create room for the dinner, turn your back and smash a particularly malicious wave hit and sent one of the baking trays off the counter covering Elaine from the waist down in sauce, covering the floor and filling the cubby holes with the thankfully foil wrapped fish and the rest of the sauce. Cue two hours of cleaning after we fed our crew who knew nothing about what had almost befallen their dinner!
These are some random insights from our galley on CV20 this Thursday while up on deck our watches were sailing miles on the East side of Taiwan impatiently waiting to enter the Ocean sprint at the latitude 22 at 6am in the morning.
Love to all our supporters at home
Katya and Elaine