Saturday Day 8 – Blue Skies at Last and Gin Tea

At long last … we have sunny blue skies and the breeze is dropping.  Wet weather gear is replaced with bikinis, boardies and undies.  

The bunks are damp and sweaty. It is humid and we have all the cabin fans switched on.  We sleep in as little clothing as possible.  The sunscreen is in use and sunbathing has begun – this is more like it! We bathe today and it is wonderful.  Lunch is tacos and the mood is relaxed and happy.

Navigating via ipad

Twin bruises

Wilhelmina auto-helm

We are excited when we have 299nm to go.  We again enjoy our Happy Hour followed by fillet steak, red wine jus, mashed potato and coleslaw.

The sun sets and we realize we need to put up the new watch roster.  Heather puts up the wrong roster and sends the watches into chaos – oops – sorry gang – didn’t mean to have all that sleep!

The night watch see dolphins torpedoing through the water with phosphorescence streaming behind them - a fantastic sight. 

At 3am, Lyn offers to make tea and coffee for the night watch.  Unbeknownst to her, John has forgotten to put away the Gin from last night's happy hour and the plastic bottle is sitting in the sink.  Our gin is stored in plastic water bottles to keep the weight down on the boat.  Lyn happily fills the kettle with Gin and boils it before making teas and coffee's.  She passes the mugs of hot liquid up to the crew.  They wait a while for it to cool and discover that they can't bring the mug to their lips without their nostrils flaring and eyes watering - oh - what a moment for Gin De Vries!  By the way, what is the flash point for Gin ... mmm.

Breeze: 15-25 knots                                                                                              

Best de-stressing technique: Lyn (dental flossing)