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Sea Becky
So the hokey cokey shakedown sail from Lisbon to Lanzarote took 8 days in the end, unfortunately we had no wind near Madeira and spent some time sailing round in circles before the trade winds picked up again, we made it to Lanzarote last Saturday at 6am. It was a lovely morning, we had rum and coke to celebrate and a shower - luxury!
Unfortunately for me my stomach decided that it couldn´t cope with the topsy turvy motion of the boat for the first day so decided that it would empty its contents in various locations around the boat much to the dismay of the rest of the crew who kept me supplied with tissue and water! We had also managed to catch the first (and only) fish of the trip which was a Dorado, very beautiful and colourful with a yellow tail and blue spots. However I never got to try it properly as the last thing I felt like eating was fried fish, even if I had helped to catch it! Luckily the sickness only lasted 1 day, phew.
The watch system was easy, we had 2 hours on and then 8 off, so if you were on watch from 8pm - 10pm you would then get the sunrise watch from 6am - 8am. However most of the time you were getting up at some ridiculous hour in the night, theres not much else to do once the sun goes down but sleep or listen to music as we cannot waste the electricity as we have the navigation lights on (except in pirate areas). The night watches were fab, the most amazing starry skies and the phosphorescence in the water are enough to keep you entertained for hours, one night we thought we saw dolphins in the water. I shared my night watches with the marine to start with so I understood what to do (keep going in the right direction and don´t hit anything!) and was then given my own watches. On several occasions ships came really close to me which resulted in me clonking around the deck shining the flash light at the ship and then at the sail repeatedly, usually until someone woke up from down below only to tell me that the ship was actually about 3 miles away! Another night I was so mesmorized with the sky that we started going round in circles in the middle of the sea and it took me about 10 mins to get us going in the right direction again.
The daylight hours at sea consist of getting up, going to the toilet, having some breakfast, doing a watch, making a round of sarnies or making bread and then thinking about dinner or having a shower. Every little thing requires extra effort on board, like making a cup of tea and having a wash. Nedless to say I managed one shower at sea which consisted of standing on deck in a bikini and throwing buckets of water over yourself. Its actually ok, providing you can hold your balance with the rocking boat.
So were now in Santa Cruz in Tenerife gettig the boat ready for the Atlantic, I´ve had to sleep on deck for the last few nights as work is being done in my cabin. David (skipper) has had to go back to London as we have run out of tea, he won´t be back until next Tuesday so we´ll be leaving for the Atlantic in 7-10 days. The crossing will take about 25-30 days so its more than likely that we´ll be at sea for Christmas and possibly new year, and I was hoping to hear some reggae xmas carols on xmas day! We´re going to stop in Barbados to recuperate for a week or so before sailing to Trinidad and Tobago. The marine grew up in Trinidad and wants to show us the isñand, apparently theres a pitch lake and also an amazing 15 mile beach with fantastic surf... After that in mid Jan I´m going to have to look for work either in the Caribbean or a working passage to NZ. It really is another world this sailing lark, theres loads of people on their boats who just float round the world for years some of their boats are absolutely luxurious and huge.
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