Sea loves me, sea loves me not

A cheeky shot of the all powerful sun before it disappears to illuminate the western part of the world

A new dawn creeped up on Te Kaihōpara as the crew finally settled into life at sea. The sick-bags were ditched for smiles and wet weather gear was exchanged with shorts as the sandy shores of Fiji echoed playfully in the distance. Drama was obviously never too far away as I woke up from my ‘standby mode’ in the night time to see a new vessel being displayed on our slave display in the saloon.

I rushed upstairs and saw the crew on watch was having a good laugh in the dark. To my shock, the phantom new contact (vessel) had disappeared from the chartplotter display in the wheelhouse by now. As my half-asleep self struggled to arrange the words in my mouth into a socially acceptable order, I noticed that our skipper, Jason was already sitting in a far corner in the wheelhouse and seemed to be well aware of the prevalent situation. Relieved and still half-asleep, I quickly ventured back to my ‘standby-mode’, as I was more than satisfied that Jason had been made aware of the phantom vessel by my grunting-word-renditions, if he already wasn’t following its progress.

In a stunning turn of events, when I woke up in the morning, all and sundry accused me of sleepwalking and mumbling voodoo slang at the night’s watch. I did not correct them. Fear of a sleep-walking-voodoo-practicing Chief Mate generally brings the best performance out of crew members on and off watch during an ocean passage.

Andrew delighted that Becks is finally following his t-shirt fashion sense

I was further delighted as I discovered Te Kaihōpara’s official bell hidden away in the aft cabin. I must try and polish it back to its glory days. As our passage takes us towards the legendary Minerva Reef’s, one must stop to ponder the fact that the brain is the only human organ that got to name itself. Even practising cannibals of the far flung Papua New Guinea and Tongan tribes of yore, avoided partaking of their deceased relative’s brain, since consumption of same species brain leads to certain and swift fatality. This was also the basis of the erstwhile mad cow disease epidemic. Sometimes, I think vegetarianism must be given a long and serious thought. Who knows, what wonders of evolution might be getting delayed because it ended up on someone’s sunday barbecue? Or maybe I’ve been inhaling too much Brasso whilst polishing the ship’s bell.

Don’t worry, Kat’s tethered-on

As Matt, Andrew and Kat orchestrated an exemplary barbecue dinner, Mo finished off proceedings with a superb apple crumble. We’ve been blessed by a stunning collection of fabulous chefs, who find themselves travelling to Fiji together, onboard good ol’ Te Kaihōpara. Barry stayed low today after his adventures with the aft head the previous day. (Thank the sweet Lord for Domestos).

Peter impressed all with his pyjama collection and Rob snuck in a bit of extra ham into his lunch sandwich, when he thought no one was looking. Debbie got herself into all sorts of trouble by waking up Kat for her night watch, by giving the wrong end of her body parts a good tug (nothing too naughty). When confronted by Kat, Debbie proclaimed innocence and blamed her Boston-raised alter ego, Felicity, for the ‘rude awakening’ (pun intended). All was forgotten, as pure panic ran through the yacht when Barry, once again emerged from the heads, accusing the exhaust fan of having betrayed him in the time of his greatest need.

Debbie enjoying the thrills of sea living and easy sailing, some of Te Kaihōpara’s specialities

- Arjun Thimmaya, Chief Mate, Te Kaihōpara

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Honey, you’re ever so slowly drifting away (from the yacht)

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Some rest for the wicked