Variety is the spice of life. Well there’s not much variety in our daily routine at moment. We do our watch, we sleep, we read, we eat and if we feel like it, we find a little chore to do. The scenery is much the same. Water water everywhere. The boys spend a lot of time staring out at their fishing line with hope and longing.
So to spice up each day with something varied, I cook up a different meal each evening. I rotate rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and noodle dishes. This is mix and match with either chicken, beef, fish and occasional pork. Sometimes we have none meat days and use eggs, cheese or beans as the main protein dish. Dishes range from stews, curries, chilis, sauces, stir fries, homemade pizzas, omelets etc.
Curries are always a favourite but I try not to cook it more than twice a week as I do not want to run out of spices too soon.
As you must have worked out, I’m the main cook while Steve and John takes turn as bus boy or washer upper. Being cook is probably the one job that keeps me the most busy. Not only do I prepare and cook each evening. I have to keep an constant eye on our provision. Every other day I have to inspect our fresh food, fruit and vegetable and turn them over to reduce rotting. Now that the fresh foods are beginning to run out I have to start growing my sprouts so that we have some form of fresh vegetable. We’re also on our last loaf of bought bread so soon its back to making our own bread each morning. An effort but smells and tastes delicious.
My night shift was a little more challenging. The wind shifted and to my delight we were down wind sailing, my preferred tack. As always, when I get what I want I discover a problem. The problem with down wind sailing is that you really have to keep and eye on how the wind shifts behind you. If the wind shifts suddenly to the other side it can cause the main sail to jibe. In quite strong wind the sudden swing of the sail and boom to the other side, can severely damage the mast and boat. After spending some time nervously and continuously looking at the wind instruments and adjusting our bearing I decided to put the boat on automatic wind vane. This keeps the boat at a constant angle to the wind so I set the angle wide enough not to jibe. There is a consequence to this. I now had no real control over keeping to our track. The wind would take us where the wind went. Fortunately and to John’s great relief when he took over watch, we were only a few feet off course.
Oh yes, a new record, we’ve done more than a thousand nautical miles.
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