I am sure many of us remember the old TV programme by that name
but it is just perfect for the title of this blog. To describe where we are, if
you have a map with latitude marked, just go to 17 degrees north and you will
see we are off the south of Mexico and just approaching Guatemala. The round
the world crew members tell me that this last 9 days have been the best run of
days where the weather has been fine during the whole race. In the day, we are
in shorts and T-shirts with wide-brimmed hats and copious amounts of sun tan
cream. The six hour watch in the afternoon is a fight against dehydration and
exhaustion. The wind has now died off so we have only "light airs"
and there is barely enough breeze to cool you down. The heat is intensified
down below because we have to run our generator to produce electricity and the
"mothers" are baking bread for our next meal. As a consequence we all
leak or rather crudely, sweat profusely all the time. Drinking sufficient is a
constant battle and we have watch mates who have a role of ensuring we keep
drinking. We also look at the colour of our wee! So life is quite testing.
But yesterday was special. It was my birthday. I had cards with
me to open and that was a delight, a real connection with home. But my crew
mates were fabulous. I was on watch from 10pm 'til 2am and I was asked to fill
in the log at just after midnight and so that marked the start of my birthday.
On returning to the deck from the navigation station, they sang Happy Birthday. Following the sleep break from 2am to 6am, when we all met on
deck for watch handover, the whole crew sang it again. At Happy Half Hour
during watch handover at 6pm, they sang a birthday song to me that they had
written during the previous 2 days and pudding was a sort of birthday cake made
up with everything from sponges to Haribos.
Malcolm’s birthday
song, by the crew of Switzerland:
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
on this Clipper Race
vessel?
Malcolm is a tall kind
sailor
Always smiling always
cheerful
Keep us safe from what
we're fearful
On this Clipper Race vessel
String up the bunks
and grind that grinder
Sweat up the kite,
give a lesson reminder
Mothering duties, non
the finer
Caring for the crew
Give him a ride on a
leaping dolphin
Reminisce with an
elderly turtle
Hit him on the head
with a squid that hurtles
To celebrate your
birthday
Offer him a wish on a
shooting star
Give him some wind to
Panama
Wrap these gifts in a
golden sunset
To celebrate your
birthday
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
What should we do with
the birthday sailor
on this Clipper Race
vessel?
Besides the crew marking my birthday, Mother Nature made her
contribution. The sunrise and sunset were spectacular, we spotted a turtle,
tuna fish were leaping out of the water and at one point we had a pod of about
20 dolphins playing around the boat for about 20 minutes. They rush in front of
the bow and then circle around and do it again and again. I never cease to
marvel at these wonderful animals.
It all sounds like a great day, however, there were
difficulties. Two crew members had not drunk enough and went down with early symptoms
of dehydration. Both were confined to down below and their liquid
intake upped along with rehydration powders. Our generator stopped working the
previous evening. This is a sizeable engine and the skipper, who is an engineer
by training and one of the crew worked for over twelve hours to fix this. At one
point we thought we could not do this and were to go onto power conservation
mode along with water saving as the water maker needs power. To top all this,
we had both heads (toilets) stop working properly and were almost at the point
of having buckets and 'chuck it over the side' routines invoked. These events
along with the heat and lack of sleep led to a visible decline in the crew's
demeanour. However, a birthday and a final repair to the generator and a major
piece of loo engineering by our German journalist, Harry, restored our morale.
So we continue to get hotter as we move towards the equator. We
battle with light airs and wind holes, just trying to keep the boat going
forward. But, we are really bonding as a crew, cooking great meals from basic ingredients,
baking wonderful bread and cakes and getting more adept at some complex
routines and sail evolutions (changes) on the boat.
I am getting messages from Cathy that you are keen for
information about me and this slightly crazy adventure. I just want to thank
you for all your support and care.
With my best wishes
Malcolm
NOTE: For those reading this via email update, don't forget to
visit the blog at https://malclipper.blogspot.com where you can pledge
support via donations to Malcolm's chosen charities - the Bobby Moore Fund tackling
bowel cancer; the James Whale Fund for kidney cancer; and Prostate Cancer
UK.
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| Birthday cake! |
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