36:07N 49:44W The Voyage of the Snark Onward but slowly - Rationing in progress!!

The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Wed 18 May 2011 11:00
Hi folks,
 
And good morning to another blue skied beautiful day on the North Atlantic.  As I type there is not a breath of wind, despite our best efforts to find it and not a ripple on the water.  Our progress is slow under throttled back engine but we are still moving in the right direction.  So it appears are the dolphins who are performing hunting maneuvers off our starboard beam.  A flock of birds has gathered above to pluck the left behinds out of the sea.  I hope they leave some for us as our lines are still untouched by fish.  I have rarely had a more barren fishing experience than this.  We were (and are) still hoping to supplement our fresh stores with some fish from the generous oceans shopping basket but sadly so far we just have loads and loads of pickled ginger and soya sauce.
 
The consistent lack of wind is beginning to prey on the mind out here and we had a sit down talk about our fuel situation and what scenarios may pan out.  We simply don't have enough fuel to motor all the way if we don't get any wind so at this stage we will stop motor sailing when there is even a breath of wind to sail by and go for economy.  We do have a over half our fuel supply left and have motored around 500Nm so far so the estimates we have been working to seem to be accurate.  With any luck half what we have left will get us into the wind zone, beyond that we will have to wait for wind and hold something in reserve.
 
Fuel is far from the only concern, there are a number of other rationing issues which we are confronting now to avoid problems later if our lack of wind persists.  First good news is drinking water, we have plenty and a fully operational water maker with 360 litres in our fresh water tanks.  Here is the list of items for concern:
  • food - we have enough staple foods (rice, pasta, potatoes) to last us another 10 days so we are OK assuming our progress does not actually get slower but we do need to watch what we use now.  We have cooked off all our fresh meat supplies to prevent spoilage and using veg as it won't keep, plenty of tins of sweetcorn in reserve.  We have enough meet and tins to last with the staples for the 10 days.  That giant bag of rice now looks like something we should have bought! Just in case.
  • Drinks - water we have aplenty but other fluids, juice, coke etc will run out before we get to the other end.  Seemingly huge quantities on boarded in Bermuda are dwindling rapidly as the cruise runs on.
  • Gas - we changed our bottle on the second day out.  Usually a bottle lasts us around 3 weeks but we seem to be drinking endless cups of tea and we don't have an electric kettle so gas management is now an issue. 
  • Entertainment - sounds trivial but with all this calm weather we need to find something to do so reading is the favoured pass time.  However despite a well stocked library we are getting through it quickly.  This is more an issue for me than anyone and my forward reading schedule is looking decidedly dodgy with Pride and Prejudice WITH ZOMBIES looming large.  By the end of the next week it will either be that or "The Lovely Bones" and frankly I think I'd rather chew my leg off.  We are varying our diet with a marathon card game.  This is just between me and Quentin on the night shift just now, at last count he was down three cars and looking like losing the house but he managed to pull some back last night. 
  • Luxury treats - with the Jamaican ginger cake all eaten and no wind to play with we are all sneaking to the cookie jar to snack on, the ginger snaps, we are half way through our supply THERE COULD BE TROUBLE.  The choco ration locker is actually in good shape and should last the trip so some good news there.
So at a glance it does not look too bad but we now have to make one immediate rationing decision.  Tea and Coffee are off the menu, unless I suppose we start boiling the water in the rice cooker!  Gas use for cooking has to have the priority.
 
Just been visited by a Whale!!  While they are splendid I do sometimes hope we do not intrude on their territory as they are quite big and this one was only 5-10 metres away.  I am concerned they will attack or try and mate with us, or something.
 
Bye for now off to check the weather again in the forlorn hope it will say wind is coming.
 
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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