We had a bit of a foodie day today. Breakfast is a bit of a help-your-self affair, usually revolving around muesli, porridge or if the generator is running toast. Occasionally a generous soul will offer to do something interesting with eggs for everyone else – like put them in pancakes and cover them in syrup. But not today.
Jon and Teo had a heart to heart before boat school.
“Your reading is really improving, if you keep practicing you’ll be able to read for fun soon.” said Jon encouragingly.
“…. wait, I’ll be able to pickup any book and just read it?” replied Teo clearly astounded by this revelation.
“Well, yes, I mean there will always be words you’ll get stuck on and either have to ask someone or look in a dictionary, but yes you’ll be able to pick-up any book and reading it will be fun and no so frustrating.”
“My book about oceans? My book about a million facts? My book about the weather? I’ll be able to read them all?” “Yup, with a bit more practice.”
“But I’ve been learning to read for THREE YEARS!”
“Just another year and it’ll click I think Teo.”
“Mamma!” Teo yells to Mia up on deck “I’m going to spend boat school reading today, mostly reading, lots of reading and then a little math game at the end, OK?”
The sudden burst of enthusiasm didn’t last all morning, but the desire is there. So that was boat school today. Anyway, back to food.
Cheese Scones baby! Jon’s aunty Margery came through with her recipe and despite it being very bouncy today Jon managed to whip together a bunch for lunch. YUM. So after Tomato soup and freshly baked bread (thanks Tina) we had a round of scones and butter.
The afternoon came and went without much ado. Mia beavered away and now Itchy Foot has a full complement of socks for her fenders, all hanging on the arch looking pretty. Tina also had her handful of needles and thread making a kindle case out of old jeans. Before we left, they had the plan to work on jewellery this crossing, turning silver wire, leather, beads, twine into cute little things. But the motion of the ocean is not very conducive to that sort of fine work, it’s not easy to put it down and pick it back up again. It would seem that needle work is better suited to the sea.
Jon continued his baking adventure by taking the last of our pears (they’ve lasted well) and making a Pear and Apple Crumble with Cinnamon and Rum. And a dollop of Cookie Ice-cream. Num num. The boat was filled with delicious smells. Mia was on dinner duty and we all enjoyed the Lasagna which they made and froze in Panama as tonights low stress option, not wanting to be outdone by Jon she also made garlic bread on the side.
The general consensus after the meal was that we were Thanksgiving Full (or Christmas Dinner full depending).
In other news, we continue in a direct line towards The Marquesas with maybe only a week to go, fingers crossed. We continue side by side (10 miles apart) from our Australian buddy boat. Their presence is reassuring, for example today we decided to reduce the size of the main sail to calm the boat down. To do that we need to turn into the wind for a few minutes while we roll away some of the sail and therefore we end up heading in the wrong direction for a couple of minutes. After a few seconds we here over the VHF radio:
“Itchy Foot, Itchy Foot, this is Adele 1, Adele 1. We noticed that you guys have dropped your boat speed and have changed direction. We just wanted to check everything was OK. If you are in the middle of reefing (reducing) the sails then no worries, don’t rush to reply.”
As we were Teo fielded the call and explained that we were indeed reefing the sails and that everything was OK, and thanks for the call. Anyway, it’s nice to have company, even if you can’t see them by eye.
We’re still looking for the right moment to pop our bubbles and celebrate, we have a feeling that tomorrow when we have less than 1000 miles to go will be a good one.
