Chasing the Albatross

My adventure in search of a bird by David Lawson

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0 Update Sunday 14th January

  • by David Lawson
  • 14-01-2018

 

Today I thought to give an insight into how food is going on the boat. We were expecting to be in Airlie by now and whilst we haven’t run out of food we are down to the last few day bags and are using up spares as creatively as possible.

Lunches are particularly creative opportunities for our Mother Watch. Yesterday it was a choice of hot baked beans, cold baked beans or a mix of the two with frankfurter sausage and ryvita.

Today it was surprise coronation chicken. Potato salad, mixed with boiled egg and curry powder. The surprise was the chicken….which came first the chicken or the egg? It’s an interesting debate and you could argue we did effectively have chicken.

There is no squash left on board so it’s a choice of desalinated sea water only unless someone wants to slave over a hot kettle! Not ideal in a hot galley. Fortunately I bought some Gatorade mix in Hobart to make up some juice from.

Last night’s meal was Jasmine rice with mixed veg (tinned) and fruit and nut mix. It doesn’t sound great but worked out quite well.

Tonight’s meal is butternut squash chilli with Jasmine rice and mixed veg (tinned).

All the fresh veg and fruit is gone now.

Breakfast is essentially weetabix now. We’ve been carrying enough around the world so far to feed a small army. To make it palatable Jonathan smothers his in nutella before adding milk….very strange!

For treats we’re down to some very strange looking marshmallows. I’m looking at one now. Cylindrical in shape with layers of white, pink, blue and yellow. The special ingredient in them is humectant which I’ve never heard of. There’s probably more nutrition in the plastic bag they are wrapped in!

We’ve had several flying fish land in the boat at night but because they smell so much no one has felt the need to keep them to eat. We have managed to throw them back in the water but a few crew are squeamish when they start flapping as they pick them up.

In respect of clothes I’ve just had to break into my reserve clothes for when we arrive in Airlie. I was drying my shorts on one of the grinders earlier just to have something dry to wear. I’ve given up on socks as my boots are so wet. Fortunately trench foot hasn’t set in just yet.

On the race front we have Liverpool and Sanya in visual sight just ahead of us. We’re stalking them down and it’s likely to be a drag race to the end now. The next 24 hrs are going to be a bit tense especially for those watching on the viewer. All to play for so could be an interesting night ahead. I dont think skipper Matt is going to be getting much sleep.

Mike Duffy and I have just shot up on deck to see if we could spot the elusive green flash as the sun dips below the horizon. Apparently it’s a real phenomenon but unfortunately the sun dipped into a murky greyish horizon just before it set. So no green flash but a grey one in its place. Ah well, a bit of fun if nothing else.