Dear Family and Friends
In theory all is well on board Rocket / Stop Rhino Poaching - however a catastrophe looms - sort of. Yesterday we ran out of gas for the stove (we only found the leak too late :(). Now supposedly this is not serious as we have copious amounts of braai meat (which uses separate gas canisters) and tinned stuff - however we have got so used to Masterchef Shin's daily delights that we are currently all in mourning. RR is working furiously to figure out how to develop a makeshift oven (daily temperatures are in the high 30's) - check out the Facebook pic. Of course, being an all male yacht, we have had plenty of proposals for methane manufacture - but all have been rejected out of hand.
I know I have not finished the hat descriptors - we have many more days of stories so stick around ...please (we really do love having you there!).
Rather I would like to discuss some nautical stuff for our non sailing family and friends (ie the vast majority). Let me start off with the concept of a rope - a simple rope. However on board the yacht all ropes have different names. Fortunately the ropes have different colours - I suspect this is to ensure that the chaos is kept down to reasonable, semi controllable levels.
Sticking with sailing terminology we have halyards, sheets, lazy sheets, guys, lazy guys and fast girls. We also have pole ups and pole downs - the list is endless. The ropes which go UP - they go to the top of the mast - these are called Halyards and they normally require significant effort to pull up (hence Pieter sweating the halyard). The sheets are ropes which typically pull the sail towards the back of the boat. The guys (in my mind) are ropes which typically connect to the spinnaker - I am sure there are
plenty of other guy reasons. As I write, it has been noted to me that the fast girl ropes are not on board - they are only to be found in Rio :). (PS - this is a joke!!)
Now all this may sound cool and OK - until times are tight. Try to picture the scenario. The wind is idling along at say 12 knots (about 20 kph) - we are minding our own business and sort of relaxing or busy with RR. Suddenly the wind gusts up to 20 knots. The helm shouts out "Sheet, Sheet, Sheet!"
(Note sailors are obliged to repeat three times such as Mayday, Mayday, Mayday). Getting back to Sheet, Sheet ,Sheet, as a newbie you have a number of alternatives to consider. Did the driver stub his toe and he is merely swearing with a slight Mexican accent? Or which of the three Sheets must you
pull in. Or should you in fact let one of them out? If you do the wrong thing, this yacht can and does very rapidly enter into the sailing broach two step dance - which the skipper (and everyone else) does not truly appreciate.
As we hopefully drift past the 2/3 mark we have been immersed in a high speed learning curve of these ropes and sailing in general. Us Newbies certainly do not consider ourselves as sailors - but rapid learning has been a requisite.
Winds have been a little friskier and we expect them to pick up further within the next day so progress is certainly improving. Let's just hope our make-shift oven gives us some hot food!
Lots of love and best wishes to all our family and friends
Regards
Mike on behalf of Team Rocket/Stop Rhino Poaching
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