The first days sail of a long passage is always a bit dozy as everyone sleeps off the affects of sea sickness tablets. We snack and graze on bakery goods and fresh foods enjoying the last land treats. My first nights night watch wasn’t without mishap as I heard a loud sound as one of the laden fruit nets hanging from the aft binimi broke sending our precious fresh oranges and grapefruits scattering across the deck and plopping into the dark ocean. Drat, bother, there goes our fresh fruit on the first day! I clipped my harness onto the life line and went aft to retrieve as many as I could, hurling them into the dinghy hanging off the davits. The deck was at a 20-30 degree moving angle so nothing was going to stay still anywhere. I could sort where to put them in the morning in daylight. But with the boat pitching and rolling at a 30 degree angle, sailing at 10kts (with the 2kts of current in our favour for once) and it being pitch black with everyone asleep I wasn’t going to risk anything over an orange, fresh or not!
Russell poked his head up, the net breaking meant the avalanche of oranges landed above his head where he was sleeping in the back cabin. “What on earth was that?” he asked, “the oranges” I replied hurling the last few into the dinghy. We then both laughed at the hilarity of it as I explained what had happened. Never mind we have fresh apples and pears left and tinned fruit and 20 days to go….
Halls Aboard - Sailing Kathryn del Fuego 