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We left Tenerife on 2nd December 2006 in high spirits with bellys full of champagne having celebrated our departure with a random bunch of Germans, needless to say this didn't do much for the hangover I was already suffering due to the previous nights leaving drinks! As we sailed south, heading for the Cape Verde islands I suddenly thought to myself that this is would be the last bit of land we would see for about 3 weeks - yikes! We soon got back into the swing of our watches, getting up at unearthly hours and having to sleep during the day, I was woken up by John on the first morning asking whether I'd seen dolphins before on a yacht. I was up like a flash and soon hanging precariously over the bow of the boat clutchng my camera. Dolphins are officially amazing! They seem to spend their lives scouting the oceans for boats and then swim over to splash around in the bow waves, excellent entertainment for crew, especially ours as we'd only been gone 24 hours and I was already bored...
The next day I was soon distracted with a new boat catastrophe, I'd been to the toilet, as you do, sitting there rocking from side to side (with the waves) holding on so I didn't fall off. Once I'd finished I started to pump the toilet handle to flush it all away, pump, pump, pump (times 30), uh oh, its all still there, I'll try again, pump, pump, pump. Uhmmm the waters gone a nice colour and the whole places is starting to smell like a sewage works (I'm trying to capture the moment!), nice. One more try, pump, pump, pump. Right my arms aching now and I've had enough. I've broken the toilet on day 2 of the trip, how shall I break it to the others? So poking my head out of the door I looked at skipper David and said 'we have a toilet problem - it won't go away'. He lept to his feet and instantly started pumping the handle true marine style until the smell got even worse and the bowl filled up even more, he looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and marched out to tell Mick (Pole boy) that the whole toilet needed dismantling and cleaning out - yuk, rather him than me. So that was that, we were using buckets till we'd fixed the toilet. Unfortunately this proved to be more tricky than first thought what with the motion of the boat, trying to balance, squat and aim all at the same time was all too much for me and I soon resorted to poking my bottom out through the rails at the bow of the boat and doing the necessary there. I just kept reminding myself that this was all character building stuff...
On day 5 the toilet was finally fixed and all started to get back to normal, we even saw a turtle heading east and also the QE2 on the horizon. We tried to radio them for a chat but didn't get a reply, still at least it livened up the day and distracted me from teh rocking of the boat which was by now driving me round the bend. I WISH IT WOULD STOP. 3 more weeks of this, how will I cope?
Every morning there would be flying fish on the foredeck of the boat, the poor things had obviously heard us coming during the night and thinking they were going to be eaten, tried to get out of the way, unfortunately jumping to their death. Still at least it provided fresh fishy breakfast for Pansey. During the day we'd sleep whenever we could and generally relax if not on watch. Everyone would get their own lunch although David was finding it increasingly hard to do anything besides helm or sleep in his bunk due to his Parkinson's getting worse. Still everyone took care of him and did what they could.Â
The evening meal was prepared and eaten before sunset to save the batteries and it was also nice to eat in the day light. Each night as I came on watch I'd find it harder and harder to helm, the waves were getting big, probably 15+ ft and this meant that the tiller was getting heavier and the boat generally harder to steer. Most nights I'd get up and be greeted by the most amazingly starry night, you just wouldn't believe how many stars there were in the sky. It was the most amazing feeling knowing that I was all alone on the boat at night steering her across the ocean under such a beautiful sky. I'd often work out the time back home and wonder what you were all up to, either dnacing the night away, drinking and generally doing all those normal pre Christmas things and here I was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Needless to say I didn't let myself ponder on that thought for long, all I kept thinking was how many miles to go til we got to Barbados.Â
The next morning I woke up just before my watch and was quickly told to don my oilies, we were in the middle of a squall and the sky had turned a nasty shade of grey and was raining down on us good and proper, lucky me, at least I woke up quickly! Funnily enough I was the only one on board with proper wet weather gear and the weather seemed to know this as just as I was coming off watch the clouds would part and the sun would bake down on John for his watch.
One day I was cooking dinner, having had all day to think about what I was going to make and started to chop the veggies up on deck. As dinner was almost ready and I was about to dish up I calle the others and served it into 5 bowls. Unfortunately when all the food was served Patti was still in the forepeak so I decided to chance the bowls of food and ran to get her, as I was returning to the galley chariots of fire style the bowls and contents all lept to their fate in the cat litter tray woth a jolt of the boat. Argh I shouted out loud and set about cleaning it all up. Fortunately there was a still a load left in the pot so all was not lost. By then I was pretty tired of the whole affair and not bothered about eating and what I thought would be a good concoction turned out to be a salty mish mash (it's pretty hard to cook in salt water with rotting veg, no fridge and cans of beans and tomatoes!)Â
So anyway the next day after recovering frm the flying food episode I set about catching fish again. We'd run out of fresh food days before this so fish was the only option, after a few hours of trailing the line the peg went ping (we'd set up the line so that it was held on by a peg, when a fish pulled on the line the peg would go ping, so we'd know there was a fish on the end. John (official fisherman for the trip) was sleeping and as second in command I was up - this was it! I pulled in the line, shut the cat down below and son saw the wriggling fosh on the lone, lovely another dorado. It was soon flapping about on deck and I was wrestling with the hook in its mouth, eventually it was free and writhing about in the cockpit, making a bloody mess. I don't know what came over me, perhaos the sight of it dying and wanting to be put out of its misery, perhaps I was just hungry, I grabbed the winch handle and clonked it over its head as hard as I could. Bam and splat, again, bam, harder again, bam. There its stopped moving and crikey, I can't believe I just did that - phew. So there, my own fish, I filleted it and cooked it for the others much to their astonishment at my new found Girl Friday survival skills!
Day 9 and we're halfway there, its a weird feeling being in the middle of the Atlantic, best not to get too carried away with thinking too much about it otherwise you start to get wound up abd think silly thoughts. So I concentrated on how far we had to go instead of potential disasters, 1400 nm to go...
Today its time for the second shower of the trip, having only 2 litres of water to wash in a wees means you hav to be pretty resourceful to say the least, so I set about hauling bucket of seawater on board. Its best to wash in sea water and rinse off with the fresh. The sea bucket is a pretty sturdy thing with a length of rope attached to it, I flung it over the side and waited for it to fill, oh no, crikey its full already and oh dear, please, no, its so heavy its slipping from my grasp and ouch I'm being pulled up against the bars at the back of the boat, argh hold on, 'help!' I shouted to Mick but alas I could do no more, the bucket was gone. What a disaster, so there I was in my bikini, still needing a shower, there was nothing for it but to fill buckets in the galley via the sea water pump, goodness, this meant lots of sloshing water about below decks and hauling it up and down the companionway (steps). Having a shower had never proved to be so much of an effort!
Its day 12 and its absolutely baking, so hot and no relief from the heat, we're almost becalmed, theres no wind and al I want to do is jump straight in, yes I need to swim. I tell myself that this is a bad idea and resort to hanging over the side watchng the water ripples glide slowly past the boat and think about how strange it is that the closet land is Guyana...Â
Obviously the further west you travel the later the sun come u pand goes down and in order to retain a sense of routine we decided to put our clocks back one hour every 15 degrees west. This aso meant that our watches would be one hour longer when we did this so we took it in turns.
Ok, so its day 16 and I'm on night watch, no going round in circles for me as we're doing 5-6 knots, towards the end of my watch I spotted a flashing light on the horizon and noted that it was moving, there was another ship too, we were probably crossing a shipping lane. As I watched the flashing light was coming towards us which was odd, if this was a yacht this meant that it would have been sailing into the wind, very odd. I kept an eye on it and as John came on watch asked him what it was. He had no idea but as it was going into the wind was clearly under power somehow. I later found out in Trinidad that most French yachts have strobe mast nights so this is what it was...
The next day I started to get cravings and was in desparate need of chips and chocolate cake, yum, if only... So I started to think about dinner and decided to use our last fresh vegetable that night and in doing so introduced David and John to the wonderful world of the butternut squash!. They'd never had it before and looked on in disbelief as I peeled it in front of them on deck. 'What are you going to do with it? Why are you peeling it? Ooo its orange' they cooed. When I finally served it with some spicy sausage and beans theres were lots of clean bowls so they must have liked it - one of my more successful meals!
Day 17 and there's a yacht on the horizon, we watch it for about an hour before it disappers out of view, nice to see that others are out here too, very reassuring. On day 18 we have 300 miles to go and now I'm craving ice cream and an OJ and lemonade. Bearing in mind I've drunk nothing but water for the whole trip! I can't wait to get there now although I feel like its the home stretch and we're through the worst of it...
Its day 20 and I'm on the morning watch, we have 25 miles to go, we've been averaging 150 miles a day which is ok, this means that I'll prbably see land on my watch, the eyes are peeled and the others are all up anticipating the big moment. Eventually they all gave up and went to bed and birds started to circle over our boat what an amazing feeling, a few minutes later, is that it? Is that Barbados out there? Quick grab the binoculars, ooo not sure. 15 minutes later, yes 'LAND HO' I boomed at the top of my voice and the others all came staggering up. Where? Where? There I said the smudge of grey on the horizon, yes, we were almost there. Aeroplanes appeared o nthe horizon and more birds flew over us to investigate, civiisation after 20 days at sea. Its a strange feeling, I just couldn't wait to get on land again for that rum punch. Eventually the island got bigger and we were able to make out houses. I laid on deck and tuned into the reggae Christmas carols on the radio. As we rounded the southern tip of Barbados we was the bay with the most golden white sand and bluest water, I couldn't wait to jump in and we dropped anchor. It was all a bit of an anticlimax really and more relief than anything. So I was officially in the Caribbean and raring to find another boat...Â
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