Back Down to Earth

Day 12 of the Return Trip

After a few days of splendour, the euphoria on the boat has calmed down a bit.

The breeze dropped off yesterday afternoon and swung around to a very cold Southerly wind. (read: bitterly cold). Shortly after sunset we had to drop our trusty kite, Florence Kite-in-gale, and put up the big #1 genoa. It's a bit slower, but at least now we won't be outrunning the fish.

The night watches were chilly but fairly uneventful. The moon was with us for the whole night last night, and didn't shy away into a shadow like last night. Turns out, we received a message from Raf's Traveena yesterday saying that she hopes we didn't miss the 'blood moon'of the previous night.

Apparently the best places to have seen it from were either South America or some remote position in the South Atlantic. Who'd have thought?

Day 11 meant that our own fresh-food rations were depleted, and we could start busting out the vacuum-sealed wonder-rations that Kax prepared for us before she left (thanks, Kax!). It meant that we could have pancakes for breakfast this morning. The pannekoeke that were made by Gina and yours truly were gobbled up nearly as fast as Vitoria de Carvalho's biscuits (thanks, Vitoria!).

We lost our fire for a while. Literally. Of the four lighters that we had on board, none of them would work. Not so much as a spark, which is all that is required to light the gas-stove. We found a half-box of matches which we counted out to 30. Which would last us 15 days if we lit the stove twice a day - PROVIDED we got it right each time. This was not ideal, as it would mean no tea in between meals, and if anything happened to even a few of the matches, we'd be resorting to induced electrical short-circiuts to get our spark.

LUCKILY I found something that would save the day. A little red Ferarri lighter belonging to our dear friend Andrew Pavitt (Andyyyyyyy!) that I thought may have been lost. So could someone please tell Andy we all say thanks he is a lifesaver. And tell him if he was looking for his lighter, not to worry. Brennan has it.

Just want to give a last shout out to some peeps - Brad, Harrison Ford, Thoris, Jess Rawly and all the friends and family who have been mailing us.

You are all biscuits of the highest order.

Brennan