4th of July
Happy 4th everyone!
This is our fourth day at sea. The nights are getting easier and most people managed to sleep well. I can also see that everyone recovered their appetite. This is a good sign. Speaking of appetite, I have not talked about food, yet, but I must say that food on board is quite spectacular. In the evening, we consume the famous ‘bocaux’ which is the French name for jars. These jars have been lovingly prepared by friends and family and they each contain delicious stuff: beef briskets with zucchinis, blanquette de veau, poulet basquaise, curry chicken and so on. The bocaux have been an object of discussion for months if not more. For dinner, we warm up 2 or 3 and serve them with a bit of rice, or polenta, or quinoa, or whatever. (See pictures below.) The food brings a smile on everyone’s face as well. At the end of each dinner we smash the jars into the sea to save space and weight. The sand returns to the sea.
Today has been `spinnaker day’. After the great maneuver from yesterday, we were ready to launch the asymmetric spinnaker. We did this this morning with everyone on deck. Things were very smooth this time and the kite is still flying as I am writing this so we have had for about 8 hours now. The kite helps us gain speed on a downwind course, and we must go downwind. Helming with the kite up requires a tremendous amount of attention and we are all doing our best.
We are making good progress. Our route is perhaps too far North and we might hit a high pressure area (with little wind) if we stay on this course. I should say that this is not totally clear as boats ahead of us, which were a bit more South than we are, are now moving up North. So who knows? In any event, we will need to decide whether to bring down the asymmetric spinnaker and take a more southern course with the symmetric one. This is something we will need to decide before nightfall. Speaking of the next night, things will be more tricky as we will have to deal with the spinnaker during the shifts. And when you do not see anything… I will report on this tomorrow.
Olivier is teaching us how to use the sextant so that we can locate ourselves the way the elders used to do. And the way we would need to do, should we loose all power and electronic devices. Olivier knows just about everything. He learned about this trade while serving in the French Navy pre GPS. He’s quite amazing.
Last thing for the day. Seb prepared a delicious omelet this morning with peppers and parmigiano reggiano. What else could we ask for? Thanks, Seb!
