Life on the ocean wave….

Life at sea…..
We left Santa Cruz on Easter Day after phoning Mum and Sophie and Lou and Rachel for a quick catch up. I just have to recap on a funny story though – when we were in Santa Cruz we found a small art gallery which had some really stunning copper and silver sculptures of blue footed booby. They were quite expensive but such a wonderful reminder of our time in the islands. We faffed around and didn’t make the decision to buy. So I went back with Charlotte and did a haggle and bought one for Richard for his birthday. They packed it all up for me and I said I’d be back around 4pm to collect it. In the meantime Richard went back and had the same idea and haggled – says he did a better deal than me but I am doubtful! Got right to the point of paying by making a transfer and the chap happened to say to his wife that she also had to pack up the one for Angela Berry!! We almost ended up with a surfeit of blue footed friends…..
Life at sea can be rather tedious at times – the boat has to be maintained and three meals a day produced for the crew. Charlotte has been sick again and was out of action for six days which means the cooking all falls to me which is quite hard. Fortunately she is firing on all cylinders again now so shared catering – so much easier. The dolphins arrived on day two and are always such a welcome sight jumping around in the bow waves – here they are bottle nosed dolphins will be interesting to see what we get as we go forward.
I find a routine on board these long passages really important to structure the day – I have been doing pilates on deck every morning which I am sure is quite an entertaining sight – today in 30 knots and rolling around I have decided it’s a bit dangerous! I’ve been watching Gavin and Stacey Karen and it is totally hilarious – we are now all watching it again so a great present. Scrabble and reading and cooking and washing up!
And then the fishing! My favourite. First fish caught – a blue fin tuna. I really do hate the poor things being butchered on the back of the boat although a good slug of gin seems to help them on their way – for the fish not me! The first one was about 20 lbs and I thought Oscar was going to go over the side trying to reel it in. The meat on these fish is abundant and they are just pure muscle machines – 15 steaks off the first one. The second fish two days later was a skipjack tuna and bigger by far – they are really beautiful fish with striped sides. Richard is insisting on having sushi makes me feel sick! The meat from the fish is – I am told – really spectacular though and I am cooking it so have overcome my squeamishness. Last night at around 9ish the sky around the boat was just full of flying fish zig zagging around in the rigging – amazingly only two ended up on deck and one thwacked Richard in the chest before landing downstairs! A truly unusual sight…
Having wondered in Antigua about whether to replace our dodger we had it repaired and decided it would be ok to New Zealand. It isn’t. The zip is coming away and whilst I have done some running repairs with the sail repair kit I don’t think it is going to hold up. New one ordered and will be shipped to Tahiti with the new dinghy cover – hoping upon hope it hangs on till there. The hammering that the boat has taken in just the sixteen weeks we have been gone has surprised me – so many things have broken and needed replacement. I suppose in the past we have only ever sailed for four weeks at a time.
As I write this we have now been at sea nearly 8 days. A number of the other boats got off for this run and I did think about it but it seems cheating somehow not to do the big Ocean crossings.