Bel & Lil's Mother Watch Extrordinaire!

Working the foredeck

Friday 19th March 2010

Position: 041degs 40'43N  178degs 01'79E

Boat time: 12:50hrs

Since leaving Singapore, Mother watch has stopped being a thing to dread. With the exception of the first one on this leg, which was sprung on us by surprise so I had no chance to do the 'pre-mother stugeron ritual', I have not been ill since. Also, a change of mum-partner to Bel has made me 'girl-up' and take it on my feet! (it was decided that girls are better at coping on the boat and just getting on with things rather moaning and moping so the phrase has changed from 'man-up' to 'girl-up'!)

The last 24 hours have been the best Mother watch ever! Bel and I have developed a system in the galley which suits us and we work quickly, normally in a fit of giggles! At 42 she's old enough to be my mother but insists on acting like my big sister! Love it! Mother starts when lunch has been cleared by the previous Mothers and I get straight to work on making fresh bread, a skill learnt from Christine who was my last mother partner. 3 loaves have to be made to feed 'Vulture Squadron' (as my Uncle Barrie would say!) at breakfast. Giving them enough time to rise can be tricky if you need the oven but I've learnt the trick is warm water to kickstart the yeast and a spoonful of milk powder makes a really crusty loaf. Whilst I'm doing the bread, Bel gets the day bags ready, gets anything we need from storage, makes drinks for the on-watch, cleans the heads and cleans our allocated locker. Bel is our cheif victualler so, also today, we sorted out a new storage bag of cereal (with the help of Claudia) and allocated all the snacks and treats for the rest of the leg - I cant wait 'til we cross the date line, we have caramel popcorn then!

It's then time to start making tea. Last night was really simple but with our organisational skills anything is possible! Dried tortellini pasta was on the menu which takes about 20 minutes to heat up (once the water is boiling which takes about an hour) and we spruced it up with some tomato, pine nut and basil pesto and grated cheese all mixed in. This is a meal I am deffo adding to my Uni cookbook! Simple but GORGEOUS! For pudding (we are good Mums and always do pudding) we heated up some marble cake - unfortunately it

was already made - and made some yummy hot custard to go with it. Yum yum yum!

After we've fed both watches and hurried the off watch to get to bed, we clear up and wipe down the galley, put the kettle on and have a few minutes before going to bed. Last night was a special night because I broke into my secret stash of hot choc! Hot choc is like gold dust on the boat so in China I bought myself a little box of 10 sachets which I have saved for special occasions! Bel and I sat in the saloon with our steaming mugs, congratulating each other on another succesul tea time as we listened to the rain pouring down, thanking the stars it wasn't us out there tonight!

Normally, the Mothers are woken at quarter to 7 to start breakfast. But today I was given a lie-in until 10 past as Bel got breaky by herself. Apparently, it's because I've had the 'bad' mother 3 times in a row now. The bad mother is when you go straight from being on watch to being Mother and straight back to being on watch again which means you miss out on sleep. When I got up after my lie-in I discovered by trousers were wet. My mother treat for a full nights sleep is to put my jammy bottoms on, so I just stayed in those all morning. It felt good, however, I discoverd quite a large hole them in quite an obvious place which will need mending before I have another jammy day!

Again, after the watches are done and we've hurried the off watch off to bed, Bel and I take our breakfast at our leisure. Having sorted the cereals out yesterday, breakfast was a full affair this morning! Bel had porridge (her best yet, it has to be said!) followed by a bowl of toasted muesli, mini Shredded wWheat and mini nut Weetabix. I had porridge followed by a small bowl of Coco Pops with hot milk, mini nut Weetabix, and toasted muesli! Yum yum yum!

After breakfast it's then my turn to do some cleaning. So I do the heads and the antibacteria-ing through the boat. The rest of the morning is then spent getting lunch ready and keeping the on-watch supplied with teas and coffees etc. This leg, we have a wide variety of teas on-board, Tetley's, Lady Grey and Chai. My Granny will be pleased to know that I now enjoy Lady Grey and I can even drink it black! I also like the Chai tea with lots of milk in it because it tastes like Christmas! A great winter warmer when your on night watch in the p***sing rain! Lunch was easy, just tuna wraps and soup, so I had plenty of time to do some baking. Warm chocolate-chip cookies are a winner when its freezing on deck!

When the off watch comes down for lunch, Bel and I play a game we call 'Guess the feet'. It's a great game where we stand in the galley and try and geuss who is coming down the hatch by their feet. We're quite good at it now and scored 100%! Lunch is served and again we hurry them off to bed so we can tidy up and hand over as quickly as possible to the next Mothers. There's then time for a quick wash before heading back on deck just as the rain stops and there is a break in the clouds - perfect timing!

We are now over halfway there and its all 'downhill' from here. Our average distance per day atm is 208 miles which gives us an ETA of the 29th March in San Fran! That would be fantastic! We're all looking forward to crossing the International Date Line later today and to doing a bit of time travel and a time warp! With the sun out at last and good conditions, the mood has lifted on-board and we're ready to re-live Thursday all over again! xxx