Panmania

Hey,
Just thought that I would take the opportunity to put up a couple of pictures from along the way - don't know exactly when we will next have internet. Tomorrow I will try and put up some internal pictures about the yacht.

Basically though, once we leave from a port, the yacht keeps going 24/7. There is nowhere to stop and anchor and we are not following a coastline. We are both up and about during the day, even if this is just snoozing on deck. All the time though, one of us has the responsibility to make sure the boat is safe. A big ship (oil tanker) will run into you about 20 minutes after you first see it on the horizon, so it is important to look out.

At night things just keep going, but as we both like sleep, we split the night into 2 shifts to stop arguments! One of us stays up till 3am, while the other gets up then and holds the watch till morning. That is...unless there is a big sea or any other reason to have both of us awake. Then we both just have to deal with it, and catch up on sleep later.

Cooking is just like at home, and maybe sometimes even healthier. We don't tend to have 3 meals a day, but just snack and cook a decent meal at some time that suits. So dinner may be at lunch or even at breakfast time. There is a 4 burner cooker that is gimballed - it swings independant of the yacht so that pots don't slide off. It works very well on this yacht actually.

Anyway, more of that later. A couple of pictures are attached from the trip so far...1. The chartplotter is a really handy navigation assistant and can zoom out to this sort of scale or right in to show the location of the boat on an electronic map. 2. Dolphins swim on the bow of the yacht most days. 3. Sunset on the first night out from Antigua.

Will write again tomorrow before we head off into the Pacific.