Race 5 - Day 13
Crew Diary - Race 5 - Day 13
04 January

Chris Jack
Chris Jack
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Ode to boats stuck in a wind pocket

With apologies to South Pacific

You’ve got to tack your boat right out of that air

You’ve got to tack your boat right out of that air

You’ve got to tack your boat right out of that air

And send it on its way

One of the things that had concerned me when I signed up to do Clipper Race was what would be expected of me when it came to food preparation. In fact, a lot of meal designing has been taken away from us by the victualer: the person in charge of designing and obtaining food for the journey.

We’ve been at sea for just under two weeks now. We left port with a lot of commercially made buns and bread loaves. Thanks to the science of food preservatives, it was only yesterday that we had to finally dispose of the final few as they were no longer fit for consumption.

On the fruit front we’ve done better. Although we have long since consumed the fresh mangos and pineapples, we still have plenty of apples and oranges: and even a few limes. All remain good eating: the apples still have excellent crunch and the oranges remain juicy. Full disclosure: we did have to dispose of a few oranges that were going blue early on, but this was due to bruising. No further fruit needed chucking in their wake (or should that be in the wake).

Chef skill still plays an important role. James made chilli con carne (or chilli con corn beef as he described it) for lunch: aided by frying the corn beef to improve the texture. Excellent!