Day 12 “Passengers!”
Posted on November 14th, 2013
The last 24hrs have seen light winds and a much flatter sea state, so much so that I was able to have a ‘bucket bath’. You’ll be relived to know that this is in a different bucket with which Cirque de Bucket performances take place!! A cleaner and less smelly skipper arrived on deck yesterday evening, so much so that a migrating (house/sand/?) martin, obviously weary and a bit disoriented, was not put off using Haskapa to rest up for a few hours! The poor thing kept trying to find places to land, but kept selecting rubbish options – like the sails or ropes, all of which bounced it off after a few seconds.
Finally, just as night fell, it kind of crash landed at the base of the mast – no doubt in part attracted by the fine workmanship of the repairs there!! I didn’t see how long it stayed, but it wasn’t there later on when I blundered up on to the foredeck to deal with a spinnaker wrap by moonlight – which for non nautical types is a bit less Bacharach and David than it sounds!!
A more permanent passenger is the rather distinguished Royal Opera House Bear owned by Joy, my mother in law. This Bear accompanies family members on trips of daring do to provide luck and support. It is incredibly well travelled, having already walked to the North Pole with Caroline and Matt, rowed across the Atlantic with Liz & I, done operational tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan with John, and sailed the North Atlantic with John!!!
He had taken up the luxurious position of Bear in Residence aboard the family flagship Motor Yacht Blue Moon, where he was happily watching the world go by, before being dragged board Haskapa! This will be his third transatlantic trip, and in the smallest vessel so far. Happily for the Bear, he is getting slightly better treatment than when we took him on the rowing boat. The poor chap was tied to a light fitting on deck for the first three weeks of the crossing, and it took a Tropical Storm type thing for Liz & I to finally take pity on his little bedraggled face peering into the cabin at us and to bring him into shelter!! He stays in the cabin on Haskapa and just keeps an eye on what’s going on!
Today is another day of light winds and spinnakers, and with stronger winds forecast for the weekend, I’ve also taken the opportunity to have a shave. Haskapa is still going for the Movember thing in a big way! I’m slightly embarrassed to report that the growth which started in La Gomera has now grown into rather fine green whiskers, which are delicately set out just above the anti foul line on her stern – like a sort of Clark Gable moustache!! I’ll monitor it for a few days to see what happens, and as its not slowing the boat down, just let her carry on doing her thing!!
Happily there is no rubbish in the ocean to report – in fact I haven’t seen any sign of human life outside the boat for 36hours now! Am I all alone out here……?!?!?
Today’s sailing is dedicated to Julian Dodson, Andrew Durbin, Heidi Duckworth, Amanda Goldsmith, Mr Hawes-Fairley, C Rogers, Matt Davies, Mike Trueman, Penny Collinson, Nikiki Baugh, Emma Newton and all those who kindly threw ‘pennies in the pot’ at Sandbanks Boatshow
