Dear Family and Friends
Latest news from Rocket as at 17h51 SA time 7 Jan.
Good headway made last night - no major hiccups. We lost another reef (first reef this time) but this was repaired around 2am. (Running Repairs?)
Today progressed well with all the crew managing to have a shower. Not sure when I last enjoyed a shower so much. Note that this is not trivial. It requires you to wedge yourself in between the toilet door and basin to ensure you do not land headfirst in the toilet itself (maybe this is why it's called the heads?). Then apply a splash of water, a layer of soap before splashing down with a drop more water. A fascinating act to apply while maintaining balance. Of course this is old news for real sailors - but
yet another learning for the newbies.
Heavy swells this afternoon with a strong tailwind caused a "wrong movement of the boat" (I was told to make this sound not too bad :)). This has resulted in us tearing the bracket that is used to raise the spinnaker pole. Out comes the hacksaw and 15 different toolboxes and hey presto, we have running repairs (lets just call him RR) back in action!
As at this time the bracket is not fully replaced and we shall be very limited in the potential use of our spinnakers - let's see how this progresses.
The watermaker was finally fixed today (RR again :)) - this gives us permission to shower more regularly. Note that showering (and anything else in the toilet) is not trivial so this is not likely to be a twice a day affair.
The steering on our ultra reliable starboard side failed this morning. Gerrie found the brackets which the fitter decided were not required when he replaced our steering on 3 Jan. So we (RR again)fixed both port and starboard steering using the brackets. Hopefully this is the last we shall be hearing from our steering.
All crew seem to be back to eating and drinking - although we believe we shall still have our full complement of booze when we get to Rio. We shall have to make up for lost time then. Pieter says we shall have a drink under the first tree we come to.
All the crew send love and best wishes to family and friends at home - and thanks for the prayers and good wishes.
Regards from Mike on behalf of Team Rocket.
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