day 119: living on a prayer
Jamie: we’ve made to the halfway point of our journey from bora bora to Fiji and we are celebrating large. Hotcakes with Nutella today, bird masks by Megan, big corn fritter up for dinner, banana bread by Megan, as well as a change up of shifts. Another big day of events. Wendy is variable in her performance mostly it’s pretty awful making for a lot of hand steering. I had a great shift in the evening sun singing and navigating without using the instruments. The last of spilt substances including chia seeds and duck fat have been mopped up. Thank you to everyone for word of the day feedback. One (of the hundreds) of WOD fans in particular has reached out and I’d like to thank Caroline (Megan’s sister) for your kind words, the team appreciate positive feedback in these times of limited creative inspiration. Speaking of which, tonight’s WOD comes from megan herself, brava brava. WOD: disparate. Disparate - a stark difference between things, often a polar opposite situation. Used in a sen: I found a macaw the other day and took it into the lost and found. Has anyone picked up disparate?
Naomi here, My feet beg to differ on the duck grease being fully mopped up, it seems there’s only so much cold salt water can do to clean up grease spills. It dripped into the top drawer so the lighters we use to light the stovetop are all slippery with fat too :) We have decided to change up our shifts for a bit of fun, now I get the earlier 9 to midnight shift so we will see if I get more sleep if that corresponds to doing more projects in the day time, beyond the book-a-day binge I have going on at the moment. I don’t know if you guys have managed an extended book-a-day before but it generally results , in hindsight, in a very confusing erratic mish mash of all the stories you read. So far I have read the 3 books in the Farseer trilogy, strangers in their own land, and I am almost done with the southern reach trilogy. One fantasy trilogy, one sociologist explaining why southern USA republicans are the way they are, and a very odd sci fi trilogy…. Makes for some very strange pre-watch dreams. Thanks to Leslie for the hotcakes recipe it’s a keeper, and thank you Megan for the very excellent gaudy bird masks, I do hope one day you can fulfill your lifelong desire of being a primary or perhaps kindergarten teacher.
Miriam here, I second Naomi on the remaining grease traces not to mention chia stuck in unexpected places. Megan did an amazing job on the bird masks, really capturing the essence of each unique member of Bluebird’s wee flock. I reassembled the tool box today. The full moon rose a stunning golden tonight. There were tons of flying fish on this morning’s watch which never cease to amaze and delight me. I discovered dancing while hand steering is possible in a limited way which brought me the physical relief and entertainment I so sorely (pun intended) needed and also I imagine was at least passingly entertaining for the folks that caught a glimpse of my one person silent disco. I’m joining Naomi’s book club but imagine it’ll take me more than one day per book as I foolishly filled my kindle with thought provoking scholarly nonfiction which is not nearly as conducive to speed reading (for me anyways). I’m on the 12-3 watch now which I imagine will make this journey feel even more liminal and disorienting. Fun! 6 days, 850ish miles down, 6 more (hopefully) to go!
Kia ora, Megan here! Ah, the absolute luxury of the 6-9 watch. Tonight I indulged in an entire bedtime routine, with a decadent 9 hours exactly where you want 9 hours in the night. After 6 days of the 3-6 watch, I have earned this. Surely Jamie will show the same nobility, grace, and humility that I displayed while selflessly shouldering this great burden.
Well done team on getting halfway there. On day one, seeing the teeny line we were drawing toward our goal on navionics… it seemed we might be at sea forever, or at the very least for more than 12-14 days. Especially once we realized that we were crossing the date line, good god did our time seem pinched. But we’re doing it! And even though today was full of joy, I want to revisit our treasure hunt yesterday, because I think it got a bit lost in the many excitements of our last 48 hours.
We had been expecting a treasure hunt. Jamie had fallen into the classic trap of telling us about the wonderful idea he had before having done anything to execute the wonderful idea, and I rather suspected that, having received praise for such a wonderful idea, that might be the end of it, as it so often is. But as Naomi’s watch started, Jamie corralled us out into the cockpit, retrieved the companionway door from the mines, and barricaded himself indoors. He then shut us inside while he scurried about the deck. And then he shut us outside again. His golden head popped above the door, “welcome, contestants.” We had proven our abilities to find shells on land, but how would we fare at sea? Jamie removed the door with a flourish, sat down, and we listened as a robotic voice issued instructions from the speaker in his lap. Each clue would lead us to a shell and another clue, until finally we had secured our grand prize. He then handed us our first clue, and we were off. Jamie had worried that Naomi would be too good at this game, as after over a 100 days at sea, she has secured a truly vicelike grip on his enfeebled mind. But actually Miriam was the star, guessing such locations as “sounds like lower” (LURE box if you can believe it). Appropriately, I guessed the final clue, “behind you,” as relating to the head (there is a cabinet behind the toilet). WHICH BLOODY WORKS AGAIN BY THE WAY!! That wasn’t the prize I just thought I’d mention it. Anyway, he did make us give him back his shells, but other than that, what a cracker activity.
WOAHHHHH-OHH Bluebird out