GHOST

The watches are working well, it is 4 hours on, 4 hours off and then 2 hours on standby, then every 6th day you get a motherwatch when all you have to do is cook and clean and can sleep as much as you want! It is wonderful to have food cooked for you when you are on watch and the boat is always really clean which is nice. The side effect is that the boys are learning to cook and the rest of us are provided with entertainment - Gordon's Galley Nightmares it has been termed, though the resultant food has in fact always been good.

After weeks of frustrating fishing efforts in the med we put the line in yesterday morning when we had finally run out of fresh meat and caught Daniel (the dead fish) within ten minutes! We were just lamenting whether Daniel was sufficient for a meal for 6 when we caught Ned (the not dead fish), perfect! After drowning Ned in cheap gin we decided that as both fish were around 50cm and around a kilo each, 2 provided just the right amount of food and they were in fact delicious steamed in the oven in foil with garlic, dried chillis (home grown by Sunboy, they definitely pack a punch), lemon, fresh parsley and butter. They were definitely of the mackerel family and the fish book points us toward a particular type called Spanish Mackerel, well we won't mind catching a few more of them, but tuna or Mahi Mahi would be even better!

The meal plans are working well and after 4 days of fresh meat (lasagna, chicken curry, beef chili and pork casserole) it was nice to have fish yesterday. Today Heather is on motherwatch and given she is a professional chef we have high expectations of the food today! In any case there is plenty of food for pasta and risotto for the next couple of days before we tuck into our frozen meat supplies for week 2.

In fact we have been eating very healthily and are well below the anticipated snack level. As the fruit is hanging literally in front of your eyes it proves an irresistible temptation and we are trying to eat on a "need to eat" basis to minimize the gifts to Neptune. All the veggies are packed away in a cool dark place under the saloon bunk and are all doing well except for the carrots which don't look happy and therefore today's menu is likely to include at some point carrots and an avocado which is now perfectly ripe.

Just noticed Jay lovingly cleaning the salt off the chart plotter which we have named Harry Plotter, apparently it "is a little Buddha which needs lots of love as it looks after us every day" - he's not even on motherwatch!!! Stefano has been busily cleaning the floor after spilling half a jar of coffee grounds everywhere (although he is on motherwatch at the moment) - perhaps we are all going stir crazy after all. Anyway signing off here at 9.30am with clear blue skies and the line trailing behind us just in case ...

PS not sure if anyone is reading this or indeed putting comments on here, but we can't see them so if you are email us direct at ghost(AT)mailasail[dot]com