From things you have said to me, I know that some of you out there are minutely interested in the daily life of a boot room rat, so here goes:
We are working 3 hour watches. If I tell you that I do the midnight to 0300 watch, you can work out the rest. Night watches are loong and really quite arduous because we have to stay awake and at least minimally on the ball, monitoring everything that goes on in the boat - battery levels, Kevvo, lizzie, sail trim, heading and vmg, all the different and important noises and vibrations that tell us how Berri is travelling, plus the speed at which our toenails are growing and, I guess, for McQ, counting the hours until the next hair management session. (It's not too bad at the mo, but fully salty...) All this through the din of an ipod faffing away. More on this later.
Izz, somewhere in the BBC archive there is the Mike Morpurgo program - woonderful stuff and relevant - all about the concept of 'home' down the ages to us and Leroy in our respective vehicles...a link from the website perhaps?
Watch changes are when we speak to each other - usually shorthand communication - kevvo behaving, kettle's on, 'night...
I'm generally awake during the day and I tend to do the boat chores because I know Berri so well. For instance, I've just adjusted kevvo and the inner forestay and opened a beer. The Consultation process this time is quite different because McQ very sensibly doesn't drink alcohol on boats so we don't have the evening happy hour. I usually have a contemplative Consult with Dr Pete - or Drs Steve or Jasper - though Dr Jasper hasn't quite come of age - during the noon - 1500 watch. Stinking hot today and I'm wondering where we put the cockpit shade cover. I think we have just enough medicinal compound to last the course.
We take it in turns to cook the evening meal around 1800. Yesterday's was buttered vegies - home grown pumpkin with carrots, onion, red cabbage, spuds lightly boiled with lots of bacon, then drained and given a bit of oil and heat and served with melted olive oil marg and parmesan. Veg au beurre a la Boot Room Cinq Etoiles. I had the remains for brekkie.
Starting to ramble. Wind dying and code zero up and just moving us - sea still to high and rolling too much to work properly. The Examiner is back...next time, a burst on her new patent leathers.
Sadly, the programme to which Alex refers is no longer listed in the
BBC archive. It was from the "Something Understood" series and was
presented by Michael Morpurgo in July 2005. Michael's children's book
"Alone on a Wide Wide Sea" was initially inspired by Berrimilla's first
voyage. Izzy
