Day 3 – Tuesday 11 February.

By Cathleen Hughes.

It was a reasonably slow morning with everyone going about their own business and still trying to figure out their shifts. Mornings on board are very casual, one will have breakfast whenever they feel like it with a choice of either oats are muesli. If you’re lucky an apple or an orange will make itself available to fill the gaps in your stomach.

Peter and Rory had their first showers yesterday along with some clothes washing which meant that Rory spent the rest of the day in his speedo waiting for his clothes to dry. We also decided that it was the perfect day to air out the cabin after two days of stuffy air had been trapped in the saloon. Various items that had gotten wet from the crashing waves and rough seas now had a chance to be dried out.

For lunch Virgil baked us a loaf of bread which we devoured with cheese and spreads. All the crew members were now starting to get their usual spirits back and finding their sea legs. We began discussing what date we thought we would get back to Cape Town. It was during this conversation that the girls realised that in exactly three days they would be spending Valentine’s Day in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with very limited communication. Most of the men on board didn’t seem too phased about this.

By late afternoon the seas had flattened and the wind had died down to a comfortable 10 knots. Lorraine made delicious spaghetti bolognaise for dinner that she learnt from her mom’s years of wonderful home cooking. It was the perfect dish for our first dinner which we all spent together. Dessert was fruit cocktail served with our last box of Ultra Mel custard which everyone took a moment of silence to savour.

The night shifts were pleasant now that the seas had calmed and the opening of our one and only box of Rooibos tea made it even more comforting. The moon lay high in the sky lighting up a pathway on the ocean surface. The combination of smooth sailing and a cup of home ensured each crew member had some much needed and well deserved sleep.