Atlantic Crossing: Birthday at sea

Day 4 – 7:

For a few days I had been hinting rather broadly about a birthday celebration for me at sea. While Sunil only half listened, Juan must have taken it rather seriously. There was a lot of whispering going on which would stop rather dramatically when I entered the saloon. Juan asked if I had cake flour, then corn starch and was rather disappointed when Sunil helpfully offered him a packet of cake mix. Juan actually said (I’m not kidding) “She deserves better”.

Juan’s Salt Bae impression with cranberries on carrot cake dough

You can’t hide big surprises in a boat. Carrots were grated, eggs whisked, and soon we had a carrot cake ready to go into the oven. I was going to have a ‘made from scratch’ Carrot birthday cake. Surprisingly, it was my turn to be Chef for the day, but clearly I wasn’t going to be cooking on my birthday. Sunil offered to make hamburgers for dinner and being vegetarian, I resigned myself to a birthday dinner of tomatoes and cheese in a hamburger bun. Juan once again set to work and made an amazing chickpea patty. It was a lovely birthday dinner, special for many reasons.

After dinner David played a Bollywood Birthday song on his iPhone, and there was even 30 secs of awkward dancing.

Over the next few days we got used to our routine of watches, cooking, playing cards, doing a little work when the sea state allowed, chatting about our lives, staring out at the sea ,staring at the clouds, staring at the stars, a little boat care, a little exercise. We learnt a little bit about Slovenian history from Mihael. We listened to Juan’s aspirations for the future.

L: You teach a kid to play a card game and he wins all your money!
R: Mihael cleaning the nooks and crannies of our boat deck

The winds continued being light so our progress slowed down. Somehow it didn’t matter as we were comfortable in the journey. However, there is an underlying vulnerability to being out in the ocean where no one can help you if things go wrong. You hope the Autopilot won’t quit on you, or the electronics die, or the water-maker go bust. There is only one direction to travel, forward-as going back upwind is not an option. There are days when you are tossed around like clothes in a washing machine, and the slamming of the waves are nerve wracking, and then there are amazing days that I can’t describe adequately.

We saw 1 pod of dolphins