Almost two weeks in the ocean and the moon is about a day away from being full.
Kinship is sailing along, the last few days we have experienced lighter winds. It makes it a bit tricky because we have squalls now and then and are reefing and unreefing a lot. Keeps us busy!
This morning I had the 04-07 watch. The night watches are my favorites on the boat, when it is peace and quiet and I have some time for my self. The boat is a small space for four people to live on. We all have our own bunk to sleep in and we all respect each others quiet times. But during the day, someone else is always awake, making food, reading a book either down below or in the cockpit.
We all get a lot of sleep, the shifts rotate and we have 3 hr on, 9 hr off. As you can tell, there is plenty of time to get some rest even though we help each other out on watches. Normally I like to read a book during the night watches, but I find myself just sitting and watching the moon, the way the waves go up and down, thinking, planning ahead, thinking about my own boat and all of a sudden an hour went by. The moon is absolutely gorgeous, it is almost full (think there is a full moon tonight), shining on the water and puts a layer of silver on all the waves. Wish you all could be out here and experience it.
This morning on my watch I had a squall coming up from behind. I rolled up the staysail and a few minutes later the wind picked up and the rain was pouring down. It made me think about a story that Dennis told med. One time when he, Gail (Andy's mum) and Andy were out sailing Gail asked Andy if there might be time to reef. Andy's response was "No mum, we are adventurers". I like to take the helm during the squalls and hand steer though them. I think about Andy's comment, "I am an adventurer", haha! The good thing is that the squalls only last for about 5-10 minutes, so I don't know how much of an adventure it actually is :) The autopilot on the boat is doing a great job and steer most of the time, but I like to take the helm a bit now and then and feel the boat and the waves. Would feel strange to get to Caribbean and say I crossed an ocean by pushing buttons...
Anyway, two weeks today. I have an other bottle of coke in the fridge for the boys and some ice cubes in the freezer. Will mark the 2 week celebration. I hope they don't dig too deep in the fridge today. We are continuing eating well on this trip. Andrew made very tasty fajitas the other day, Tim cooked up some pork and potatoes and I made a Pasta dish yesterday. The boys are starting to run low on cookies and candy, not a bad thing! The fruit hammock outside only has three pieces of oranges left in it but there is no worries, the lookers and the fridge is still full. Could probalby do the trip back again without much provisioning.
A few days ago I made up a game of "battle ship" and played against Dennis. We had two submarines, one destroyer, one aircraft carrier and one shrimp boat (no Bob the Nob this time Clint). It was a very close game but I was the lucky one and sank his last sub before he got mine. Yeah! We also have an other competition, day one we put down the ETA when we will think we will get in, actually stop the boat by dropping anchor or tying up the the dock. Here they are:
Tim: 09.00 Feb 3
Dennis: 12.00 Feb 2
Mia:18.00 Feb 1
Andrew: 21.30 Feb 1
Very spread out, will be fun to see when we get there.
Not much else to report from Kinship, me and Dennis joke that the days are the same, we eat, we sleep, have watch, trim some sail and read. Not a bad thing!
Hope everyone is having a great time at home!
-Mia
and Kinship; Dennis, Tim & Andrew
