After the storm comes the calm, and we spent much of the day drifting along at around ten knots in 18 knots of breeze. OK, so that’s not completely calm, but it does feel rather pedestrian after the events of days prior.
Many of the team also have dry suits, which they have been using when it’s been getting particularly wet and trying them out before the Southern Ocean Leg or Mighty Pacific Leg.
After a watch rotation tonight, there was a complaint about something being in a dry suit that made it uncomfortable, but we located the object and threw it away. This reminded me of a story from Level 3 training.
We shall call him 'Bob' in the interest of privacy as he may well be reading this.
In the Solent we threw Ruth the MOB dummy overboard for a drill and 'Bob' went below to don the Swimmer’s survival suit. He had been gone ages until he appears in the companion entrance way and asked: "Should I do this if I have a coat hanger down my trousers?" With a straight face, I replied: "Bob, do you have a coat hanger down your trousers?"
He continued to explain that he has something hard either in his trousers or pants and that (for the interest of her privacy) 'Jane' who had helped him prepare, would not help him by putting her hand down there to find and retrieve anything hard or foreign, seemingly unaware of any sub context, with Jane blushing red in the background.
The drill was completed eventually by Bob wearing his survival suit with a coat hanger down one of his trouser legs...
Andy