D+9 Disappointment

Yesterday, the crew were buoyed up by a good day's run and by our overall result. The forecast was fair winds all the way, but we should never have believed it. Within hours, even the wind deserted us and so it remained for almost the whole day. We became more dispirited as we imagined Corto and our opponents charging away to the south and east of us. Finally, we have a breeze and are again moving southwest.

Dave took the opportunity to bake bread. It worked! He's now Head Pastry Chef and we're expecting fresh croissants tomorrow else he'll have to walk the plank. We also retrieved the water generator so we could lay the fishing line. There has been much debate as to what we'll do if we actually catch a fish - cowering in the doghouse whilst the monster thrashes itself to death in the cockpit seems the best idea so far, but others include unbolting the tiller to dispatch the fish with a sharp blow to the head.

Elizabeth has been training for a career in the vineyards of France - she discovered the joys of doing the laundry by stomping on it in a bucket of suds. However, we later lost a pair of pants and two socks to the deep during a chaotic wind shift. She also thanks Sue for her drawing book and wants to know why she missed a lot of the pages out. Elizabeth can now do the splits all three ways and can even balance across two shelves whilst doing the box splits (aka Jean-Claude Van Damme). Matthew thanks Tiernan for his message and is pleased that he liked the centipedes he drew on his Christmas tree, but he's having a "boring time on the boat."

As for Boxing Day, we're now planning it at sea. If our poor luck continues, we may need to catch that fish...