I started my day by singing “Happy Birthday” to my baby boy who has now reached the grand old age of 20! I can’t believe I no longer have teenagers! He is feeling terribly old.
Our planned sail to The Shetlands Islands was scuppered once more as the Shetland Coastguard slipped a little “8” into the weather forecast! Having sat out in a Storm Force 10, an 8 didnt seem such a bad thing after all! Its good to remember that it normally has the words “Gale Force” popped before it, so not really weather we want to be sneaking the boat out into (don’t worry Neil!)
At least we are not stuck on a wall next to a giant ice making machine, The Orkneys aren’t such a bad place to be marooned after all!
As usual, we made the best of our time and set upon working on our yacht master exercises. Tank spent his time going through the answers to the questions we had already completed and seemed satisfied that we were not too far off beam. He is a great teacher, and uses any opportunity he can to make it interesting and funny and we are all enjoying working with him. I have asked him how a 28 year old can know so much, to which he answered “I’m not 28 yet!”
We all made good use of the afternoon as I continued my tour of CoOp shops and stocked us up on essentials, the boys went for a quick mop chop, and Tank has found a cunning way of getting rid of his worms??? (honest, thats a direct quote!)
Yes, the boys have, after 8 weeks away, finally had their hair cut. They were beginning to look a little unkempt (sorry boys, yes you were!) and now I hardly recognise them! They look lovely and neat but John feels diddled as it cost him £8 and they didnt even trim his ears (I think they are about the right size anyway!)
We then completed the passage planning for our 24 hour trip to the Shetland Islands – a meticulous plan incorporating courses to steer all the way, hour by hour, mile by mile. A very useful exercise, and I now know that Lerwick is not in Ireland! Tank has managed to fix the TV and whilst we were pondering the charts, he enjoyed watching “The Incredibles” and chuckled all the way through!
With an aching brain, I started to make dinner, with an ample supply of “sous” to assist! We are all enjoying good quality “boat food” and John would like dinner to be mentioned in each blog as a way of recording what we cook so here goes. Tonight Matthew, we are Mexican! We started off with a dish in the middle of the table, with a packet of doritos, covered with salsa, greek yoghurt and cheese and baked in the oven for 15 mins followed by chicken fajitas (chicken, garlic, onions, peppers, mushrooms, spices, tomato sauce and a splash of wine, served in tortilla wraps warmed on a frying pan) We wondered if a spin off from our Round Britain Experience could be our very own cook book for skippers, but Tank informs us this has already been done, and is indexed based on meals at different wind forces – I’m not sure I would fancy the 8-10 section!
Anyway, we are now starting to incorporate the word “exam” into our conversations, a little unsettling, but something we will shortly be approaching….its with that sobering thought that I went to the pub to make my usual contribution to the local economy!
Back to the boat to settle down to sleep once more and dream about courses to steer to the Shetland Islands! Goodnight!
