24 April 2011, some turbulence but flying! (Jon)
The past 24 hours have seen another 200 miles go by (well almost 200). The wind has increased a little over the day and the sea is now lumpy. The occasional wave manages to send a refreshing shower into the cockpit, which is unwelcome if you've just spent time showering under buckets in the sugar scoop transom, then rinsed off in fresh water. Thankfully, the sea temperature has reached 29 degrees.
Adam's 2nd bread attempt was successful today after yesterday's sad loaf which had to be chopped into ''chips'' and fried to go with fish. Fish and chips for lunch - great! Leonie failed to mention after a nice fish dinner last night the remaining 2.5 kilos of fish was thrown overboard in readiness for today's catch. Sure enough, another fish was hooked. The fight lasted about 5 seconds before the 40kg line broke.
Red team (Leonie assisted by Adam) produced a great meal of Tortillas this evening in very trying conditions - nothing stays still for long, including the kids trying to sit at the table, though they don't seem to mind - Kent has figured out if he takes a mouthful and lies down it is pretty safe. After dinner tonight all the kids were in the cockpit getting some cooler air and looking at the stars. Nathan asked Sharon if she could get 21 of them for him to eat.
Mees continues to impress me with his English, Pieter somehow seems to shy to talk much to me so we just point at each other and grin. Good times. (Shy might not be the correct word for Pieter).
Sadly for some this is the final night of sailing 'on the blue'. We expect to see land before dawn, in fact if we don't change course we'll be landing roughly. We are holding a slightly higher course to cope with an expected wind change over the next 12 hours with it easing in strength and coming around to the North, at which point we'll bear down with it. We are unlikely to get to the channel entrance at Lautoka by nightfall, which is a shame. Customs clearance is expected to take a day! I'm sure the kids will not really enjoy having to stay on board… Adam promised Sharon before we left NZ that seasickness would last a day. Then once we were underway he revised it to 3 days maximum. Now there is talk of the feeling stopping completely the moment she steps on dry land. I think it will last exactly until she is due back at work. What a holiday!
