Day 14 - Life on board (Michaela Mae's entry)

It’s final. The kite names have been chosen.

Big Zebra – Tallulah

Small Zebra storm spinnaker – Florence (Kite-in-gale)

Code 0 – Norwegian Blue

Asymmetric – Smurfette

Let’s just say it was highly contested. Thanks very much for all the suggestions. Today for morning tea dad made bread – just like his mother used to make it. It was absolutely divine. When you are exposed to fresh food, you take it for granted. When rationed down to pasta, rice cakes and peanut butter, futurelife etc, when you taste a small piece of freshly baked bread you just fall in love with the taste. We are also down to the last flapjack mixture which I found in the back of one of the cupboards. The only issue as to making this last batch is that we only have one egg left and we are not sure if it will last.

Brennan took the liberty of teaching Ryan and I chart work and plotting. Oh man, he could have been my grade 7 English teacher because he just gets carried away and eventually ends up on a different topic. No offence to his teaching skills, because no doubt I learned a lot not only about chart work but also about different types of cheeses.

Whilst we were learning about chart work from Bren, Mom took over the helm in the light flukey wind because she is the only one with enough patience to helm in those conditions. The best part about nightshifts are the beautiful stars and sailing in the moonlight. The worst part is when you go off watch, after an incredible watch, and an hour and a half before your second watch you get woken up by Ryan and Kathryn singing (only the choruses) of Disney songs. And with thirty minutes to go on their watch comes a badly sung version of ‘the final countdown’.

Ryan and I have decided that at the finish in the last gybe video: Ryan is going to helm, I will do foredeck, and Rick and Bren are going to do running backstays. This is because in 2011, Ryan and I were forced to do running backstays (a fairly simple job). I think we are close to Rio as we can now do night watches in Speedos, shorts and t-shirts. Washing has become more enjoyable because the water is a lovely temperature and not freezing anymore.

The bets are on at the moment as to what our ETA in Rio is going to be. I think Saturday. Let us know what you think.

From Michaela Mae (age 13)

PS. Ryan continues to have a long face because there is yet to be an email addressed to ‘Ryan and family’.