TECHNICAL EXPERIMENTS

RATS (rapid action technical seamen)

Salter Ferris and Clougher were in an instant lather, upon finding the keel gauge string potentiometer had broken its flexible attachment to the keel head. This is an ESSENTIAL gauge for boat maneuvers, so was immediately set upon. Operations were directed by RAT Superintendent Chief of Everything Williams, who was happy to share his practical and worldly knowledge of farmyard repair. A wonderful time was had by all in the keel wet box that surrounds the keel head and ram attachments. This is an area of water compression coming through the keel hinge whilst surfing, and directly underneath is the hole to the bottom of the briny. Only partial soaking to the shoulders was necessary to lift the spirits of all the junior squids taking part.

All this transpires under the galley, in a slime of freeze dry slop from above, carefully laid in amongst the bolt heads and laminate for later on in the journey. It’s actually quite intriguing that freeze dry food doesn’t actually go OFF or root, which brings us warm fuzzy drooling dreams of other fabulous gastronomic delights such at Mikky-Deez, which we all know how good a quarter pounder bun can taste after even a month under the back seat of the car.

Back online now, and the keel box is once again intact and we once again, happily have completely erroneous numbers displayed on deck. It’s a real pleasure to be able to share these great experiences with y’all.

INFIRMARY

Medical personnel have had a steady but satisfactory stream of victims thru the infirmary since departing Wellington.

Principally one of our beefier cake on board, Satterthwaite had the misfortune to perfectly time a strep-ish throat and inflamed tonsil region with the start day. This has seen the big fella laid very low, with a note to stay in his bunk.

Extra sterilization of all galley utensils has been authorized, bringing the spoon and bowl rinse to probably 1 1/2 – 2 foot pumps on the galley tap per item, instead of the usual sparkling “lick the thing clean and park it” methods normally employed.

Craig has been a willing guinea pig for nurses DeRidder and Clougher, who have gone out of their way to comfort him with whatever comes out of the Dr box in the dark. It is unclear as yet if, in fact, he has actually SWALLOWED any suppositories, but for the moment what ever seems to be working and he has made a remarkable transition from “navy grey” complexion to the current “faded sky white”. We are quietly quite happy with this progress. In other medical reports, more research is being attempted in the “lump” or “muscle” laboratory, however the patient is being slightly un-cooperative, after a recent and rampant gorging in NZ. This is only a minor setback though, as there is well known tropical conditions awaiting in 2 weeks around the horn, and that specimen abdomen will once again be revealed for more observations, especially seeing as the superficial cream cake and lager layer from NZ will have disappeared from Crew DeRidder.

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

It is clear that our newest crew man- Jeremy Smith, is more than just a yachtsman and sail maker. He has unveiled a remarkable and incredible knowledge in the BOAT RAM

technical area. This is a huge step forward in our on board boat maintenance and work areas. Specifically …pictures of his ram expertise will tell more than a thousand words.

You wait, you will laugh, we all did!!

TACTICAL TACKS

Does anybody know what GRIB stands for?? I haven’t got the guts to ask on board, after 9 years of looking at them, I still don’t know. Does this make

me a bad person?

ENTERTAINMENT

Tonight’s thriller by popular demand, will be a re-run of everybody’s favorite, Erle’s Adventures on Flyer, have you seen it yet??…. Can’t wait!

There you have it from the Lost Souls on the Black Pearl.

Juggy