Day 12
03 April 2010
Alison
Day 12 Saturday, April 3, 2010
One thing about being surrounded by salt water is you're also surrounded by salt spray, which leaves behind, well, salt. It's crunchy and grindy under your feet as you walk around the deck. But we just got our 8-day forecast from the professional weather router we're using, Commander's Weather, and they promise a nice series of boat washes up ahead.
Looks like lots of squall activity in the ITCZ, which could challenge us with wind bursts of up to 40-50 knots, interspersed with periods of little or none. The wind forecast chart has weak, wimpy arrows all through the band. We expect it will take us 3-6 days to cross the ITCZ depending on whether we can get a little of that wind to fill the sails or whether we get out with fins and kick. I suggested putting a mount on the deck for Allan's windsurfing sail, as a little extra push, but we never got that far. Besides, we have too many cans of sliced mango and Costco chicken aboard to propel this boat in light wind with a little plastic auxiliary sail.
We discussed our upcoming week as a crew today, pondering our main predicament: we are unanimously, wholeheartedly and completely tired of cabbage. Turns out, after awhile, you can't disguise it. 40 different dressings and delicious ingredients don't hide the fact that's its still cabbage. So we've declared a moratorium on cabbage for at least a week, lest crew morale sink to an all-time low. It'll be bad enough with no wind or a whipping squall, salty clothes and no sleep. The good thing is, we CAN make pizza, and macaroni and cheese, and mango salad. Best of all, we have ice cream when we come out the other side of the ITCZ for our Equator Crossing Ceremony.
And speaking of food -- off to the galley. It's time for some of that macaroni and cheese. I just wish there was an Equator Joe's up ahead -- a big provisioning barge, wouldn't that be great?