Silver Linings

Day 15 of the Return Trip

Brennan has found his sense of humour again. It may have been under the floor-boards in the newly cleaned and dried bilges, or (most likely) in the packet of Zoo Biscuits that we opened up yesterday.

Now, we wouldn't bust open a rare treat like Zoo Biscuits without proper occasion. So what could the occasion possibly have been? I'll tell you:

Yesterday we crossed the line of 20W, which is our official half-way to Cape Town mark. As such, we celebrated with a cup of 5 Roses and Zoo Biscuits, accompanied by some good music.

We've noticed that all of the good edible fish that we've caught have been in twos - 2 queen mackerel in Paranagua, 2 dorado the other day, and 2 tuna just recently. It's almost as if the fish think that Ciao Bella is Noah's Ark, and are trying their best to board two-by-two.

Tristan by Easter is looking less likely. At best we'll make it there in time for Monday morning tea. But that's not a problem - we have Gina on the boat, and Gina has foresight. Before the crossing, the clever girl stocked up on Easter eggs, so tomorrow we will be able to have our own Easter egg hunt.

And once Easter is over, we'll be hoping for a bit of South-Wester on which to ride home.

When we talk about life at 35 degrees, we don't mean latitude, but the perpetual angle of heel (tilt) of the boat. I think we're all starting to get used to it, which may be a problem when we step off the boat and are stumbling around on dry land.

Lastly, Uncle Ric's nephew has been named. "Ataru Ray Menino de Carvalho"

to be precise. To Brenda: We are stoked that your boy has a name, and a potentially cool stage name at that, but we are slightly upset that not one of our twelve suggested names featured (our name suggestion was: Higor Vitor José Maia Junior Ernesto Lauro Juan Babysheep Babylamb Obi-Wan Kenobi de Carvalho).

Tomorrow's Easter! Nobody is unstoked about that!

Bren