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Greetings from latitude 18-17 North by 38 West or about 1,500 miles due east of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We are presently motor sailing with the port engine at low, fuel efficient RPMs and all sail set except the t'gallant, studdingsails and ringtail.  The wind is south of east to east southeast and light.  We are standing on a course of 255, per ships' compass.  Skies are clear except the puffy little bits of cumulous cloud, which are the hallmark of the trade winds.  At this point in the passage, the routine has settled into a comfortable existence with only occasional calls for "all hands" or the "standby watch."  The crew is catching up on and "front loading" bunk time as well as working on maintenance projects, which always exist aboard PRIDE II.

While underway on longer voyages, PRIDE II uses a watch system called the" English" watch, which means a crew member will stand on watch for 4 hours before being off watch for 8 hours.  For instance, without any rotation, this means that "A" watch stands from 0800 to 1200 hours and again from 2000 to 2400 hours each day.  This regularity has the benefit of serving to normalize circadian rhythms of the body and allows the crew to sleep soundly when off watch. 

In addition to watch standing, each crew member is responsible for performing 1.5 hours of maintenance at some point during the day.  This work, which is turning out to be mostly varnish work, is carried out in a most civilized fashion during the afternoon watch (1200-1600), which is when everyone tends to be awake anyway. 

Watch rotations and meal times relate closely to one another.  As it is impossible to have all hands off the deck and eating at the same time (who'd run the ship?), each meal has two seatings-on coming and "idle" watch first and "off going" watch second.  That means breakfast at 0730 and 0800, lunch at 1130 and 1200 and dinner at 1930 and 2000.  If the stretch between lunch and dinner seems a bit long, let me mention that Martina, the cook, puts together a "substantial" snack at around 1600 hrs.

With meals being such a pivotal part of long voyaging, it is worth mentioning that we are lucky to have such an accomplished cook aboard in the form of Martina Deering.  This is Martina's second stint aboard PRIDE II. Her first experience was closer to home finishing the fall season in the Bay in 2002.

Martina joined the ship in Torbay, just prior to the race during which we suffered our rigging failure last September, and she has been aboard for the duration of the repair and this voyage home.  Consider, if you will, the challenges involved with provisioning and cooking for 13 souls in a country where you don't speak the language and many food stuffs are packaged differently than you are used to, or are simply not available.  But, with the help of local friends in Saint-Nazaire, Martina was quickly able to treat us all to the new experiences of eating rabbit, duck, local seafood, and (a great favorite) frogs legs!

Martina is a first rate cook baking her own bread each day and never missing getting good food on the table - plentiful, hot and on time. One has to be careful around her though, particularly those of us who are a little older and maybe not burning 5000 calories a day - she has a tendency to observe what foods you like and then to make sure that she prepares them often.  So if we all look a little rounder when we get home - the uniform stretched a little tight - well, you'll know who to blame.

Cheers,
Captain Beebe-Center