Over the past weeks we have faced some rather serious challenges. Hardly life threatening but never the less intrusions and barriers that few modern day men can face and most importantly overcome. Without describing in detail all of these one by one I might just advise you of the toughest ones we have learnt, as a team, to overcome. For example we are now desperately short of coffee. But in true adventurer fashion we have overcome this to some extent by refusing to wash our coffee mugs between drinks.
Our tea bag situation, although not dangerously bad at this stage, is being boosted by our uncanny ability to get two maybe three cups out of each bag. The gas situation is also rather grim however we have found that by placing a Сhappati down the front of the coat of our wet weather gear within an hour or so they are not only nice and warm but most importantly take on a rather soft texture feel meaning we can wrap our cold rice and tinned fish with ease without worrying about the Chappati breaking into pieces. These few obstacles however pale into insignificance in comparison to this new on board challenge.
During the day we undertake many little jobs. Tidying up, cleaning and so forth but a new task now greets us each morning. My snoring has had the effect of undoing most nuts and bolts on the ship. The vibration and noise is quite amazing so much to say most of the crew have taken on serious head gear so they can not only sleep when off watch but also concentrate when they are at the helm.
Talking about head gear and “really” serious situations we received a navigation warning email yesterday from the Coast Guard in Chili. On the eight and ninth of February at around eight each morning “articles” will be arriving from space almost exactly in the area we are sailing. To be more exact the email goes on to describe these articles as pieces of space junk to quote “Space Vehicle Elements”. We do not particularly care if this debris is a rusty old Holden (or Lada) car or empty soup tins however “Space Vehicle Elements” is causing us some concern.
So much to say that on board we have strategic management procedures to follow in times like this. For example we have an evacuation area. “The heads ” (Not just because of the cooking) Where we can all greet meet and be accounted for. We have onboard safety gear for such happenings. “Hard Hats”. I believe we will be posting a safety bulletin on the mess wall this morning advising all crew that they must wear a hard hat when on deck.
Otherwise life on board has been great to say the least! The weather has been wonderful with us sailing Eastwards averaging around 8-10kt with the occasional burst to15-16kt as we surf down these magnificent swells.
52.36S 098.29W
15.30GMT
Mark McRae
YEAR 2009 –ALL SHIPS–
0005 SOUTH PACIFIC AREAS TEMPORARILY DANGEROUS TO NAVIGATION DUE TO SPACE VEHICLE ELEMENTS FALLING FROM 0600 TO 0800 09 FEB BETWEEN
POSITIONS:
L-323300S1, G-1470300W5. L-401400S9, G-1353500W7
L-504700S6, G-0904300W6. L-524300S4, G-0915300W8
L-431400S2, G-1390500W8. L-323100S9, G-1543200W5.