Sailing to the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean 1500

Passage Notes (continued)

Some pictures of the little bird that flew below. In the right-hand picture, the bird is perched on my knee. (These two pictures were taken by Greta.)

The bird visiting the galley sink.

Welcome to "Greta's All-Night 24-Hour Diner", hot meals served day or night. And not just hot, but good, too.		The galley stove at a weird angle due to the heeling of the boat. Imagine a big steaming pot of dinner bubbling on such a tilted stove, with the stove rocking back and forth every few seconds—that's what Greta had to deal with. Plus, whatever you put on the countertop would slide/roll around and occasionally wind up on the floor, not to mention the possibility of the cook winding up on the floor, too.

Greta did a terrific job during the voyage. Not only did she stand regular watches, but she cooked hot meals every day for the entire crew. And not just ordinary fare, but exotic Thai cuisine including some first-class restaurant-quality meals. The major accommodation to cooking under difficult conditions was that all meals were served in a single bowl, and you'd have to hang on to it while eating. It was too bouncy and rolly to consider using serving dishes and place settings, and anything you'd put on a plate would likely slide right off.

I often helped out by washing and drying the dishes. Initially I used fresh water from the galley sink, but after we started having problems with the freshwater pumps, I switched to salt water. Unfortunately, the saltwater foot pump in the galley didn't work, so we hooked up the washdown hose to the spigot on deck and ran the hose through an overhead hatch into the galley. It was fun washing dishes with the hose and nozzle, since the washdown pump worked really well and the water supply was unlimited. Offshore the saltwater was quite clean, though close to shore or in a harbor the water quality would be dubious at best .

We had a couple of problems with the genset, and once it quit, we lost the ability to keep the reefer/freezer cold (the appliance uses a lot of AC power and can't run off the inverter). Some of our food spoiled and had to be discarded.