Dear Family and Friends
We are still surviving without gas - but with lots of ingenuity. We have cooked on the engine, in the braai and in a silver foil oven. However this shall have to be a story for another day (not many left!) as the Hats need to be completed. This evening we celebrated Happy Hour with a toast to less than 1000 nautical miles to go (less than 1800km) - and we have now entered the Brazil Basin
Regular followers (thank you very much - highly appreciated) will know that we acquired "status hats" at Gerrie's birthday dinner a few nights ago. The following few hats need some explaining.
Skipper: Gerrie has been the mastermind behind this whole adventure as well as the overall organiser and "make it happener" (together with Amanda and Herbert). He is always the person called to deck in tough situations and defines the daily strategy - and how we are going to make it to Rio as safely and quickly as possible. We test him on a regular basis with a complete lack of response to an urgent call "lazy guy in quickly" (initially we took this personally :)- and he still appears to maintain his sanity and humour.
Water Maker: I have noted previously that Rex is in Fixit heaven. However this water maker even tested Rex to his limits. Sarah-Stone you know how your dad can fix anything and never gives up. Well this system kept Rex busy for close on 10 days. By this time every single part (moving or not) had been inspected, tested and molested. However triumph he did. Water maker king was an absolutely automatic name for Rex (although every day he sniffs around the whole boat with his little black book looking for other Fixit stuff). By the way, the water maker was stripped AGAIN today - and is working again :
Footloose Steering mechanic: For five days Bushy walked around the boat with just one shoe - the other had disappeared into the depths of this tiny yacht. So while footloose is apt, his mechanic name is even more appropriate. Bushy fixes steering (many times), he fixes cracks, he finds alternative ways of resolving impossible mechanical problems - he even found a mechanical solution to the wandering toilet seat! He is a core member of the foredeck team with Pieter and Johan headed up by Gareth. He is a great cook and is inevitably in the galley with Shin giving assistance or masterminding his own menu.
Masterchef: This is a significant understatement for this humble man. Of course he truly is a masterchef producing works of art in a tiny workspace with NO surface which stays either still or flat. However he is equally at home sweating a halyard with Pieter, always in the depths of the boat fixing steering with Bushy and ever ready to take the helm. I'm sure he does sleep - but I'm not too sure when this happens. Shin has sailed all over the world and one can see why he would be a sought after member of any sailing team.
Scribe: OK so this is me. Hopefully all the team is having as much fun in their respective roles as I am having. While completely unplanned when we started this, it has proved to be a fun way to share the happening of this team with our family and friends. Amazingly many of the team are complete strangers prior to this escapade so reporting on the progress of this fantastic team has been both fun and actually quite easy
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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