Having received this email from Captain Bob last night, I’m thinking that I wouldn’t be weathering the storm as well as the current Crazy Daisy crew. I can imagine only too well what life onboard has been like for the last few days

Crazy Daisy email received Thursday evening:

Just an update to let you know we are all safe on Crazy Daisy. We are about 4 days away from arriving at Mauritius as long as the weather does not think otherwise. Dannie is on early morning watch (05:00-07:00) but I have come up on deck to sit opposite her as I type this. She is using the time when on watch to practice for her entry exams for Vet school. This morning she is practicing math! The sun is very bright even this early in the morning. The first thing I did was put out a lure to trawl behind the boat, we have eaten the last of the fish we have previously caught, so its time to catch another. The main pelagic fish that we catch in open ocean are Tuna, Wahoo and Mahi Mahi. Yesterday the Indian Ocean reminded us that we are in her Cyclone season. for the last 4 days we have been watching a small cyclone 500 miles north of Mauritius slowly track east, to clear out of our way before we get there, we also have been watching a low, south of us, hoping that it would move north close to us in time for us to pick up some wind from it because the day before yesterday we spent flopping around with virtually no wind. Up until then the wind had been OK to light and the seas flat and each day sunny it felt like being on a holiday. The wind had become so light that we changed the jib sail from our light weather genoa and was contemplating, trying to fly our assymetric spinnaker at the same time as the genoa just to keep us moving. Well yesterday the low from the south did arrive and instead of the 15-20 its reported, it grew in strength all day. The waves grew early in the day, the size of them told me they could not have been created by 20 knot winds and sure enough by late afternoon it was 25-30knots and the waves were 5 meters high. It was too rolly antime in the afternoon to change the light weight genoa for my all weather yankee, and if the wind strength was going to settle down closer to the predicted level, there was no need to put people on the fordeck changing sails, it would just give my needle (stitching up the end to end tear in the genoa) a good test. At about 4 in the afternoon Eddie came running up on deck carrying a great big bundle of bed linen. He had gone below to get some sleep to get ready fro his night shift, that he knew would be lively. He throught he had checked that the hatch in the ceiling of the double bunk room was secure, but apparently it wasn’t! so he was woken from his sleep when the indian Ocean came in to play!!!! All his and Graemes bedding and Matresses were soaking. We spent the rest of the afternoon turning the boat into a “look-a like” floating chinese laundry, with sheets, pillow cases and clothes hung from lines all over the stern of the boat. And 2 mattresses strung up between struts on the bimini, to drip and then hopefully dry. Unfortunately a lot of Eddies and Graemes electronics were also out in the room and also got wet with the sea water, how much damage we are still trying to understand. At the end of the afternoon I went down to help Stephanie get dinner. I think the rocking and rolling over the big waves had caused her not to feel too good about spending time in the galley, so some help was needed. while I was cooking, darkness was falling so Eddie brought in all the bedding and clothes. At 19:00 I came up on deck with the dinner plates in my hands about to hand them out, only to find the wind was blowing 30 to 35 and we still had the full main up and a light weather genoa only on its 2nd reef position. Much to Much Sail!! So I put eating on hold and got the genoa fully furled away, eased the main and just let course open out to run ahead of the wind and waves. Then we sat down and ate. The boat sailed on full main only, like this thru the evening, but coming up to Stephie’s watch just before midnight, it was obviously still too much sail, and it was not abateing, so I got Eddie in the cockpit with me and we furled the main to its first reef position and put out the small cutter sail to balance the boat. I stayed up with Stephie on her watch, occasionally it was gusting in the mid 40s so taking the time to balance the sails was the right thing to do. All night the wind blew, so I joined her on her shift, which just seemd to co-inside with the wind easing and then as the sun came up, the waves seem to have reduced a bit so we have set a much more comfortable course back in the direction of Mauritius. And today we have blue skies, high light cloud and a wind that is moving along nicely at about 8.5 knots, so all is good. How are things with you guys? here Dannie wants to ask you to give her dog Moglie a hug from her, she says she misses him. Eddie has broadcast a competition over the SSB to the rest of the Oyster fleet. it is for all the men to buzz off their beards on the 1st November and then to grow a moustache through November. This is apparently a regular prostrate cancer awareness event each year in US colleges, they call it “Mouvember”. He has suggested that at the end of Novemebr when all the fleet gets together at our next arrival party, there is a panel who will judge the moustaches. And we will award winners in 3 categories. 1. Best presented moustache, 2. Most imaginative Moustache. 3. The most Crusty, Salty Seadog award. The ladies have volateered to join in the fun, by helping judge and also to take part by wearing False moustaches to the awards party and the most ingenious falsy will also get an award. It case you haven’t guessed, Eddie has become quite the social magnet for the gregareous group in the fleet. I will try to send this email now, and hopefully it will transmit, the sat phone system has been driving me Crazy. Luv Bob —-
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