Day 6 - Soaring
We have been on the water for almost a week now. I have been
asked to pen our update for day 6.
Firstly, I would like to reiterate all sentiments and
notions to the effect of the first two days being horrendously rough and
taxing. It was a hard test of a lot of things, and everyone had to take their
medicine.
But thankfully that is behind us now, and we find ourselves
remarking that THIS, now, is more like what we signed up for. The first few
days are for asking yourself why the hell you do this, and the rest of the trip
provides the answer. It's also good to hear that our friends on team AMTEC Wits
are back on track and still in the game. The Kudu and the Zebra are on their way.
As you may have noticed from the sudden flood of blog posts
yesterday, we finally got our email up and running. Rick and Kax literally
spent hours on our spare sat-phone trying to hook up the connection. After much
toil, we have connection! You couldn't wipe the smile off Ricky's face with a chloroform
rag. We may be back to dial-up, but it's better than the stone age.
Our sea-life tally has been bolstered with the sightings of
sea-turtle and porpoise. We also found our first stowaway flying-fish -
freeloading behindthe life-raft.
We've been loving the e-mails and comments coming through!
Reyn Varkvisser, it's been so long! Keep those jokes coming. For those of you
who don't know how it works, we have a friend who forwards us all of the blog
comments and e-mails to teamciaobella@gmail.com . All we know is that he's
called the stig. The stig has a female counter-part doing the same for our
facebook group, and we're not sure whether to call her the stiglet,
or the stigarette.
Now onto the sailing (because there has also been a bit of
that). We put up the still-unnamed big zebra spinnaker on Thursday morning and
have no current plans for taking it down. We have gybed so to head a bit
further north, and give a bit of clearance to that South-Atlantic high-pressure
system, and the ghostly light winds that accompany it.
We were in 5th place the last time we checked, and are going
full-tilt, guns blazing. We'll be looking to pick off those positions one at a
time.
Like a snake in the grass, or a thief in the night, or a...
cat in the hat.
I don't know. You get the gist.
It's just a case of following the Zebra to Rio.
Brennan
P.S. Can someone tell us if we have had a thumbs-up from
Charlie Hutton-Squire in hospital?
For some reason, as I was reading this, I knew it was uncle Brennan. Telepathetic I tell you! Thanks for the updates! Even with your lack of communications, we still get more info about the witsies from you guys rather than them! Oh and Bren, you need to teach the new WYC Commodore to not take the club keys with her to Cape Town or maybe even Rio..
ReplyDeleteStrongs, Robinsons!
Love Neels
Oh Wow! News at last!! What an amazing scribe - you had me laughing out loud which was a bit mean when you are freezing to death and the brownies are finished. What a life! Keep up the good spirits and make that little boat FLY. We are very proud of you guys.
ReplyDeleteHello all
ReplyDeleteIt is like they say - "Goed begin is half gewin" (good start is half a victory)
I can only imagine how it must feel to experience such a storm and now the fair weather.
Re spinnaker name:
The first time I saw the pic's of the zebra on the spinnaker I was impressed.
I would like to submit the following wrt the name !!!
Zebras form very tight family bonds - If one of the family is injured the rest will often encircle it to protect it from further attacks. You as a family is represented by that Zebra on the big spinnaker- all standing together !!!
It is a privilege to do what you as a family achieve together - I suggest the name to be "Gill" after the alpha female aboard Ciao Bella !!!
Chris and Gerhard
Agree Gill is the right name. pulling the family forward.
ReplyDeleteIf 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhea...does that mean that one out of five enjoys it?
ReplyDeleteWhy do croutons come in airtight packages?
Aren't they just stale bread to begin with?
These Q baffle me kkkkkkkkkk
Why, Why, Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?
Hope this puts a smile on those salty faces. I enjoy sailing with you ''okes'' and reading about your trials and triumphs. Ek dink julle moet RSG omroepers word.
lotsa love Reyn and Elzabe
I've just come out of the shop with a meat and potato pie, large chips, mushy peas & a jumbo sausage. A poor homeless man sat there and said 'I've not eaten for two days' I told him - 'I wish I had your will power'
ReplyDeleteGill's my friend, so I confess my bias in thinking that naming your favourite spinnaker after her is a good idea - although it may cause a little confusion. But you have a few spinnakers so I went into teacher mode and applied my mind (despite there being no rubric for the task). The zebra could be a plain's zebra or a Grevy zebra. This zebra was named after Jules Grevy, the president of France who received one as a gift in the 1880's. This covers the zebra, now for the female criteria. Everyone knows that you call a French female Cheri (I don't know how to get the accent signs onto all the French words within the blog post - sorry). I therefore propose Cheri as a possible name for one of your zebra spinnakers. Oh alright yes, I know you're going to say that is convoluted, Michael, but it's the best I could think of today. ST
ReplyDeleteI would like to suggest you name that zebra print sail: Zsa Zsa, after Zsa Zsa Gabor. All the beauty and majesty with the tenacity and balls! And your cousin Olivia says you have to chose mine cos I'm her friend!
ReplyDelete