Thursday 1 December  2022

13^o 59.6 N  44^o 11.9 W

Today's Blog by Terry  (Time zone: UTC -2)

Now I must admit I am not a fast reader, but - at last  -I’ve finished it!

Over the ten (!) years I have been sailing  on board Serendipity,  I’ve been reading Patrick O’Brian’s ‘Master and Commander’ series of novels.  Aided by the fore-peak library shelf – this has the complete set -  I have jusr finished the twenty first, and last, book in the series!

In case you haven’t read or heard of these books, essentially they deal with 19^th Century life on board a ship of the Royal Navy and ashore around the world during the Napoleonic era.  Similar to the Hornblower novels, (but better in my view), the main characters are Jack Aubrey (he’s the seaman) and Stephen Mauturin (he’s the physician, naturalist and spy). Their adventures are told in the language of the time, rich in unusual and unfamiliar words and phrases.  [It’s not quite David and Peter …. but there are some similarities…….. J ].

If historical sea-faring novels might be of interest to you – I’d recommend them.

Breaking News:

We have just passed the 1,000 miles to go point  at the coordinates above.   Hooraayy!

Jenna was ‘on watch’ as we sailed past the mark at 14.19 hrs  boat time (UTC-2).

We are starting to feel that we are on the home stretch and are even discussing strategies to arrive at Union Island in daylight, hopefully threading us through that promised hole in the wind. My money’s on it being dark!

Baking News:

Bread has been baked (which looked and tasted like the real thing) . We have enjoyed this  for breakfast toast and lunchtime sandwiches – we hope there’s more to come*:

We also baked some excellent banana bread a couple of days ago – it goes very nicely with afternoon tea at four o’clock, but that’s now the end of the bananas. There is a possibility of carrot cake, if there are still some left ? I’m not sure our efforts would win any plaudits on that TV show but they are –nonetheless -  most welcome!

*  Stuff-that-goes-wrong-and-needs-to-be-fixed

Dark forces are abroad on board which have erected something of a barrier to the production of any more loaves of bread! 

For years, probably 10, we have used a large silicone baking tin for baking bread and, when not employed on that important task, then also for managing our mugs on the gimballed cooker to prevent them from spilling their contents all over the work surfaces/floor etc. We’d be lost without it.

A few days ago, it was evident that there was a small crack in the silicone, as to the origin of which I can only speculate!  While it would not hold any liquid, it was still quite capable of moulding a good loaf as the above picture  attests. However, SOMEONE, or SOMETHING – whatever, let’s just leave it as  “Dark Force”, has contrived to enlarge the hole:

…and to the extent that it is doubtful it will retain the dough as it proves!  We have sticky tape, yes, but heat proof?

All I currently know is that it “needs-to-be-fixed”, else the crew may STARVE…………