Race 2 - Day 20
Crew Diary - Race 2, Day 20
05 October
Hi folks
It’s 05:45 and I sit typing in the saloon enjoying a bowl of ginger cake and custard which is the fuel left out for our watch this shift … yum! The rest of my watch are up on deck under a beautiful sky of stars and a bright half moon reflecting on the ocean, enjoying the fresh air and a slightly flatter sail than of late.
Me, however, well I’m banished to below deck where it’s hot and smelly for the next 24 hours as I’m on Mother Duty (AKA Galley slave) which I detest but something all crew must endure every nine days. Hopefully, if we continue our good pace to Uruguay this should be my last Mother Duty until Race 3, so I’ll keep that in mind to get me through it! I’ve just finished making the bread and I’m waiting for it to rise, it will then go into the oven which is the perfect size for a family of four on a caravan holiday, and takes on average eight times longer than any normal oven to cook anything inside it although it does do a fabulous job of heating up the external area below decks to near volcanic temperatures. This of course only adds to the enjoyment, satisfaction and pleasure of serving meals and drinks to 21 crew all flipping day!
My Galley partner is Jody, thankfully he’s a great cook so the crew get decent meals to eat but we did have a difference of opinion last time about how to cook par-baked bread rolls and I’m afraid Jody’s method of piling a mountain of baguettes onto one baking tray and compressing it into the oven was not one I felt was conducive to evenly baked crusty rolls. After 90 minutes (instead of the advised 10 mins on the packet) we had some that had turned into charcoal after falling off the tray and landing on the naked flames (hence the question ‘is something burning?’ from everyone that walked past), the top row of four looking acceptable to serve and the rest as uncooked as when they went in! Let’s hope the scones are more successful this afternoon. Yes, you read that right folks, no matter if it’s storm force or tropical becalmed conditions we take the stiff upper lip of the British and let nothing stand in the way of afternoon tea and scones, with jam and cream of course!
Regrettably, my sustainability initiative has been somewhat of a flop so far; in my last post, I wrote I would be encouraging a decrease in fuel consumption by suggesting a reduction in the number of cooked meals (and hence a reduction in the gruelling work involved to provide those meals) on my Mother Duty shift. Nobody bought into it. Today I am trying a new tactic, I have told everyone we are running low on gas and Skipper has said we need to stop using the cooker as much as possible. So far it’s worked, the crew have not questioned it but a few are giving me suspicious looks; let's just say they all enjoyed bread and marmalade instead of toast this morning. Swapping out the butternut squash and lentil curry for digestive biscuits and cold custard might be a tad more tricky to get past them for this evenings meal though.
In other news, I’m pleased to inform you all that The Qingdao CV30 Training Academy has been established. We will be running NVQ equivalent courses ranging from ladybird book to diploma level, and these will be recognised as QCV level 0.25 to level 10. The first course off the mark has been Keith’s QCV Level 0.5 in Marine Waste Management and was launched as part of Qingdao CV30 Marine Waste Management Awareness Week. Somewhat surprisingly sign up has been on the slow side and crew are reluctant to join Keith in the lazarette to sieve through the rubbish and recycling bags so looks like we’ll have to look at other ways to encourage and incentivise crew to get with the programme. More on that next time.
Participants of the QCV level 3 in Domestic Science will also have the opportunity to be recognised for their outstanding understanding, application and leadership of cleaning duties by receiving the prestigious accolade of the ‘Susan Holcombe Award for Excellence in Domestic Science’. This will be judged by a panel of self-appointed experts and will be presented to a deserving crew member at the end of each leg.
More courses will be available in the coming months so I’ll keep you posted with progress, tutors and graduates. I can see Skipper is trying to get in on the act by holding daily sailing-related tutorials but to be honest, I can’t see that type, of course, getting much interest in the long term.
Right, enough of my waffling I’m off to do the washing up!
Love to all our friends and family – rest assured we are all very well indeed and a happy crew and we’ve had no punch ups over the tuck box...yet!
Michelle xx