Heading for Chagos
A couple of days out and we are finally managing to get some distance behind us. The engine has been acting ‘a bit funny’ (a technical term), so we decided to switch onto wind power all through last night and most of today. Bryan took an early morning dip with his scuba gear to check there was nothing caught on the propeller – which there wasn’t. I am sure he would have preferred a hot shower and coffee to start the day. A good blast of the engine seemed to be doing the trick – and just as well as the wind is coming from exactly where we need to be heading. But now we are back to wind power for the night. Murphy’s Law really does exist in the world of sailing.
I have been feeling mighty queasy since we left shore – the travel sickness tablets are never the full cure and I am well practised to getting ‘downwind’ before sharing my lunch with the fishes. I think this is for my welfare, though am never too sure if Bryan is more concerned about me or the potential racing stripes on Aroha. I am still not 100% but hope tomorrow will start to get more used to the motion again.
Our first night was endured rather than enjoyed. The first overnight passage is always the worse though as your body fights to stay awake, even though when you do sleep you can’t hit deep slumber. That said, we have all been catnapping all day. I tried to break the monotony for Erin by digging out a cross-stitch that I had on board for these dull moments. She looked fairly horrified when she saw it as it is not quite as kid-friendly as I had hoped. I have given it a go this afternoon but it is not exactly going to be a work of art.
So we are about to get tucked in for another night- long trousers for me as it gets a bit nippy. Tuna pasta is on the stove and the sun is beginning to set.
20 June 2009
It looks like we have two more nights to go. We are about 120 NM off so our current progress will have us arrive in Chagos after dark tomorrow night. For safety’s sake, we will standoff until sunrise the next day to navigate into the atoll when the sun overhead will make it easiest to see the submerged coral hazards. We are fortunate that we have friends there already. Rob and Kate are at one end and Bernd is about three miles away at the other end of the atoll. There are a number of other boats there but not sure how many. It sounds like quite a little community down there.
In case anyone was wondering- we did come up with a temporary fix for the flushing toilet problem and now have a bypass hose that eliminates the holding tank. It is not exactly a refined solution, but it gets a ten out of ten for functionality.
We are having hours of endless fun playing cards, even if Erin and I got accused of cheating earlier today. It was only a small conspiracy but not good for peace and harmony on board. ‘Last Card’ has emerged as the favourite game, played on a pack of dog playing cards. Tonight is a DVD night. My seasickness has waned so hopefully, I will be able to see this one through to the end. The last one left me feeling decidedly ill. The only blessing is that it was not a good movie. It was called “He’s just not that into you” and according to Bryan had some scary bunny boiler women in it. Erin wanted to know what a bunny boiler was and when I explained she seemed quite into the idea – watch out boys! The sun is just setting and I am sure we are in for a dark moonless night again.
21 June 2009
Some time back our friends John and Sue from DOSC introduced us to the concept of pink and blue jobs. By simple definition, pink jobs are those done by the girls and blue – yep you guessed it – done by the boys. This definition helps the division of labour on board in terms of who does what. Jobs that fall into the ‘pink category’ do tend to have a domestic element and for some reason, these seem to fall to me. Some of my pink jobs today have included preparing the bread dough for today’s ‘Pizza Hut’ lunch and sweeping clean our main living area of the cockpit. Blue jobs tend to be a bit dirtier in nature, so Bryan ends up with lugging diesel, engine servicing and fixing toilet pipes etc. There are always some jobs that seem to get lost in the blue/pink demarcation. As testimony to this, today I found myself scrubbing the bottom of the dinghy for a good hour or so to get rid of the algae remaining from the stay in Gan. Though domestic by nature, this job did get decidedly mucky and continued far longer than I consider a well classified pink job should do. Still, the job reached a fairly satisfying conclusion and did give me a chance for some splendid isolation as I slaved away sitting on top of the dinghy on the foredeck. And the day’s job quotient is now being happily balanced with Bryan engaged in a very pink job of cooking French toast.
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