Skipper's 'scottitch' !

It is the fourth day at sea now, and life on board is being controlled by a strict watch system, which we on Diana have settled into again quickly. After all, most of us have been 'living' together since Porto, which I believe helps. And the new arrival Phil has been integrated quickly, no problems here.

The wind is steady and calm, so that we make our trip over the atlantic in what seems to us to be slow motion: Between 6.5kn to 9.5kn, day and night, watch after watch. So next to the routine you might say some kind of boredom settles in as well.

Now if this applies to the crew it is ok. We have plenty of books, play 'I spy with my eyes ....' or 'I am guess who...' etc, so self-entertainent is on high ground. Also the jokes become sharper, and discussions about the sex life of the jellyfish more profound by each mile we cover.

Unfortunately this happy life is disturbed once in a while when the skipper gets bored. Now this is dangerous, because all 'hell brakes loose'. It usually starts slowly, like an itch. Our skipper trembles his legs whilst sitting on a sail. This is a first sign to volunteer for kitchen duty, as long as you get out of his way. Then the next step is him playing with the sheets, of which we have plenty : Mainsail, Forsail No 3 and Spinnaker. Of course after 5-10 minutes they are all back in the same position as before. But this only increses the aggrevation of the skipper, and by now everybody is nervous and on full alert of what might come next : And then destinity strikes : Clear for jibing !

From here onwards personal 'survial' comes down to the interpretation of our skippers scottish accent. As this is an operation that during day time might take 10-15 min if everything works well it is so much better doing this during the night - like yesterday. So all in all it took us the first time 40 min with all the safety measures in place, and talking through each step first. After one hour or so, the itch was back , so have a guess : Another jibe , all back to square one. This time it took 'only' 25 min. Aren't we clever. And we learn scottish !

Now comes the good news. Once in a while the skipper needs some sleep however for how long nobody knows. He goes to sleep, so we can get on with our watch system and silly games. Wouldn't life be fantastic without a skipper ? But then.........we would miss 'your scottitch' Duggie !

Mike (Detlef)

PS : Zeenchen , am 16. Nov. hier auf dieser web page !!!!