Another unexpected gem of a sailing day, the forecast looked gloomy and lacking in wind but we did great all day. Itchy Foot, with her big 140% genoa, really likes to go upwind in relatively calm seas with 14knots of apparent wind and that is fairly much what we got all day. No idea how far we managed to travel in the last 24 hours and I’ve decided that until we get down into the trade winds I’m not going to calculate last 24h miles run – with 3500 miles to go it seems needlessly frustrating to worrying about ten here or five there. In short, when you’ve decided to travel long-haul light distances at a brisk walking pace then it’s pointless counting the steps.
Today was a nice upbeat day on Itchy Foot. The sun was shining most of the day and the above mentioned sailing put a small on all faces. Tina prepared over-night oats for our breakfast and chopped up the last Papaya to liven it up. Teo decided that this morning would be time to try out ‘teenager moods’ when breakfast was not to his liking. Given the glimpse of what he’ll be like when he’s 13, we’re pleased to be out sailing with him earlier.
My grumpy, sulky breakfast pants however got stuck into boat school with vigour and covered a bit of reading – Biff, Kipper and Chip (why these names, why?) books are a hit and alternated with ‘Help you child with Science’ and drawings of Itchy Foot trying to get to French Polynesia to understand the difference between Velocity, Speed and Acceleration he was a happy camper.
Jon promised Sushi for lunch but provided Breakfast Burrito which met with disappointed approval from all. We woke to find a couple of suicide squid on the deck, which were promptly stuck back into the sea on the end of a lure – it didn’t help either of us. He did ‘catch a little fishy’ today but it was way too little. Unfortunately big enough to mess up his fishing lines out the back and so several hours was spent moving string between reels and tying little knots on wires. Still no fish. But we did lose a lure. Pound for pound they maybe winning.
Oh we discovered what broke yesterday, it turns out we have a little dribbling leak above the bed into the aft cabin, thankfully (he didn’t see it this way) Teo’s fluffy toys managed to absorb most of the water. Jon gave them all a good sucking to see if the water is either fresh (rainwater) or salty (seawater) and the conclusion was that we need to wash Teo’s fluffy toys more often. It is inconclusive where the small dribbles of water are coming from, but it has been noted that since we’ve shortened the sails and stopped half the sea gushing down take side of the deck then the dribbles have stopped. As Teo would say… “coincidence? I think not.”
For example: yesterday morning when reading this 100,000 interesting facts book he said “Hey, there are seven seas and I’m seven, coincidence? I think not!”
Mia and Tina got stuck in on a ‘lets’ make bunting for boats’ project, up-cycling (yes it is a thing) old clothes (we have a few) into little triangles to make into decorative bunting for Itchy Foot. So long as they don’t start cutting up the sails!
Oh and the crew of Itchy Foot is also significantly less smelly as we had hot showers on the aft-deck today, it was a water making day and we refilled our tanks of water in a couple of hours with plenty left over to freshen up the crew. Teo even got his hair washed. Which gave us ‘quote for the day’ which he slicked back his wet hair. “Malfoy from Harry Potter, he is a bit of a baddy, but he has a great hairstyle”.
