Practicalities on board

Hi all

Gill asked about practicalities on board, so I'll try and describe what it's been like.

When we're doing a long passage we have a watch and meal rota. This means in every 24hrs you'll have a 3hr watch at night and a 3hr watch during the day. The daytime watch is very relaxed, as there's always other people up and around, but at night you set your alarm and get up. Because of the rough weather we've had up until now 🌊 we've overlapped the night watch, so you're only on duty alone for an hour. On 'watch' basically means watching 👀 - either for other ships 🚢 you might have to avoid, or a change in sea state, wind speed or direction, which might mean the sails have to be reset, or for rain squalls which are quite common. If any of that happens you shout, and other bodies come running! 🌝

When we're on long passages we always wear life jackets on deck. At night, if you leave the cockpit you must clip on. No one leaves the cockpit at night if they're alone on deck. Finding someone in rough seas, especially in the dark would be extremely challenging!

Food wise; every spare space on the boats is jam packed with food! Lots of tins, pasta, cereal, uht milk, snacks, eggs, spam etc. 🥫🥚The fridge is packed with fresh foods, cheese, meats, 🧀🥩 juice etc and then the freezer is full of preprepared meals (chillis, curries, bolognese etc) and frozen veg. Strung in baskets at the back of the boat and above the table in the salon are onions, potatoes, other fresh veg. 🍏🍉🥑🥔🥕🌽 We've bought a cookbook with tips and recipe for cooking with local food. Think this will be really useful, especially when we get to the remote Pacific islands 🌴

On passage we have a rota for meal prep. Fred and Harri are fab and tend to do lunches, Jayne and I take turns with evening meals. And everyone takes turns with washing up. Although our diet has been pretty good so far we've been taking Michael's recommended hydration tablets and vitamins - thanks Michael 👍

There is always a list of 'fixing' job to be done. Tom and Bill are constantly fixing solar panels, water makers, bilge pumps etc. Most of which are pretty nasty jobs involving sticking your head down a hot, small, inaccessible hole! Hence Tom and Bill are let off most of the meal cooking, much to Bill's relief.

What else can I tell you? Life on the boat is pretty sociable, but there is space to sit on your own, especially on calmer days when the deck of the boat is all usable.

I've managed to do some crocheting, and I've kept up to date with my travel log so far, including a few little sketches.

Other practical things, our clothes are all stored in the packing cubes Fionnuala recommended 😍 They've been fantastic, especially when there's limited space to unpack anything. The whole living on board thing is a bit like camping. Everything has to have a home, otherwise you spend your life searching for it!

Think this blog is long enough now so I'll end with a photo of our latest destination 😍 Axxx