Cleaning and pancakes

1 December 2013

Woody reports:
“It is Saturday again, that means cleaning day. Everybody cleans a bit of the ship, so everything stays shipshape, also the cabins. After days of gray sky the sun decides to come out. Spectacular clearing of the sky after a cold front, Henk Wever from our nautical college would say. The deck is suddenly the place to be. Still everyone is inside in the afternoon…it is time for Hornblower. Every weekend we show two episodes in the Oosterschelde Cinema. Everyone is curious about what is going to happen next with Horatio.
The weather predictions promise us smooth sailing to Cape Horn. Still the barometer plummets, something is brewing. After dinner (spaghetti with salami-tomatosauce, yummi) the wind increases. The mizzen is taken down, the t’gallant, the mains’l, all is taken down until we only got tops’l and jib left around midnight. Still we are doing 11 knots (20kph). Although the predictions are usually pretty accurate, you can never follow them blindly. Especially if you are in the ‘furious fifties’. We even get some snow and hail. The anemometer points to 40 knots, add our own speed and we get a good force 9 Bft. Would it be the early arrival of the disturbance that is showing on the weather charts for Tuesday? We will know for sure in three days!
The wind is calming down already and the sun is showing itself again. Just the waves are still throwing us from side to side.
In a minute we will have Sunday breakfast again. Will Job have managed to bake us pancakes again, despite the snow and waves? Everyone is looking forward to that each week.
On Monday we will round the Horn, if all goes well. Shall we see the infamous rock or shall we pass it in dense fog like the ‘Europa’ did yesterday? We will keep you informed!”