Alive and well

One of those days today....gentle breeze, sunny skies, long swells rolling
through, up front our big blue genikar sail pulling us along, two lures
trolling for fish behind the boat, and life is great. I have been on watch
from 3 to 6 this morning. Had to drag my feet to get up at first, but as
predicted, the wind started veering to the west, and I had a bit of work to
do. Last night we had very light headwinds, and to squeeze a few extra
miles, we were motor sailing with our headsail only. A the wind came in
from behind, I decided to drop the main sail as she was no longer effective
and furled out the head sail. From just holding on to 4 kts, our speed
increased by a knot or two. I checked the oil and coolant levels in the
motors, and removed the genikar from the locker, ready to raise when Geoff
comes on watch. We were discussing yesterday that we need to get her up so
we can dry her a bit before she gets mouldy, and conditions presented the
perfect opportunity for just that. We rigged all our lines, and before too
long, we had her up and flying. We then enjoyed some Nespresso coffee from
the deLonghi coffee machine .... fabulous stuff. Add a quantity of milk to
the milk frother and heater, insert a coffee pod, place the mug in position
and within a minute or so, the perfect cup of coffee. The small simple
pleasures we enjoy so much out here.

I then decided to boil some eggs, chop them up fine, add some salt, pepper,
garlic and herbs mix, tomato sauce and bbq sauce, a few dollops of
mayonnaise and mixed it all up. Soon everyone was awake and up, and we
enjoyed the egg dish with cream crackers and freshly brewed coffee. In the
freezer we also have bread buns, and soon they were in the oven, and soon
to be enjoyed with sliced cold ham, pastrami, salami and whole grain
mustard and an assortment of cheeses. A load of washing went into the
washing machine, and we are fairly industrious on this Sunday morning. I
sometimes jokingly comment that I rest for six days a week and on the
seventh day I work to pay penance for the my sins. Geoff reckoned that I
will need qute a few Sundays to pay for my sins, I replied more like a
couple of lifetimes :) I also sometimes chirp that if you can't be good, at
least be good at it. Is that bad ? Bwahahahahahaha !!!!!!

So exactly where are we out here. Right now, at 04:00 UTC our position is
29*03.855S/076*18.285E. Somewhere, more than a third of the way, between
Mauritius and Australia. Our heading is more or less south east as we are
after the bit of more steady westerlies further down south. We are still in
the Indian Ocean, but just want to dip a toe in the Southern Ocean. Not to
deep where the roaring 40's roam, but close enough to enjoy the long swells
and the gentle breezes. The roaries 40's is what us mariners call 40* south
and further down down. The winds there sometimes roar, stormy weather in
short.

What makes today extra special is the unexpected good winds. Yesterday when
we looked at our weather grib files, which was sent by our windguru(my mom),
it looked like we may have no wind at all. We made good enough throughout the
night motoring to just slip under this little spell of no winds. When Geoff
took over watch from me I greeted him in the most jovial of greeting that I
love from the French. Bonjoir bonjoir !!! He was for a moment not sure how to
reply, and instead of saying bien et toi, he simply said wee wee. Which is
exactly what he was on his way to go and do, have a wee wee off the side of
the boat :) Wee wee could also be taken as yes yes in French. Being a guy
this is one of the great pleasures of sailing according to me, to stand
outside, day or night, look at the skies, and have a wee wee. On a monohull
boat this is sometimes dangerous, on a catamaran it is much safer. Once again
one of those simple pleasures we enjoy immensely out here. Anyways, instead
of no wind, we have a steady 13-15kts of westeries and sailing silky smoothly
at 7 kts. Marina is our chef on this trip, and us guys can focus mostly on
the business of sailing the ever beautiful Maverick called Island Home. She's
been doing exceedingly well, feeding us all and cooking up a storm, through
the storms and all. I decided to make some spaghetti bolognaise and give her
a bit of a break yesterday.

So what is it like living on a yacht on the open ocean you may wonder. Mostly
bliss as far as I am concerned. Especially on a yacht like Island Home. The
watermaker or desalinator to be more exact, allows us to have a hot shower
every day. Not a long ten minute shower as one would sometimes indulge in on
land, but two three minutes is fabulous when you are used to a quick shower
every three days or so without a watermaker. The little luxuries which one
takes so easily for granted when on land. We can't stop anywhere out here to
buy fresh bread, so we bake our own. Lots of freezing space on board, and
also a nice size fridge which gives extra life to or eggs and fresh veggies.
Eggs are tricky to keep good if you don't have space in the fridge. You mark
all the top sides and then vaseline them. Every two days you turn them over
and they will last for six weeks or so, depending on how fresh they were when
you bought them. Plenty of tricks like this that us yachties share between
each other. On google you will find most of them. And yes, we mostly cook
with gas :) Having inverters and generators on board also allows you to use
microwaves and convection ovens.

Most modern yachts also have great instrumentation. Autopilots,
chartplotters, radars, IAS that tells us where ships are long before radar
can detect them, VHF radios, satellite phones with which we stay in touch,
depth sounders to show us the depth, which is important in shallow waters.
Depth sounders on average will only read up to about 150 mtrs deep. Music
systems, tv's, and of course, a range of Iphones, Ipads, Macs, laptops, tabs,
hard drives with literally thousands of songs and movies and documentaries,
cameras of which the GoPro is quite popular nowadays. So we are not living
spartan lives out here, not even close. Solar panels and wind generators
pumps power into our batteries as do our engines. Fishing gear, tools and
spares to fix whatever may need fixing and so the list can go on and on. Most
obvious though, wide open spaces, without trucks, taxis and cars. A ship here
and there is the only traffic we have to watch out for mostly. Clean
unpolluted air, no insects or other creepy crawlies. So please do not worry
about us or feel sorry for us out here on the ocean. Rather feel sorry and
worry if you don't know what it feels like to really be alive. You can
experience it anywhere, except in front of your tv :)))