ARC Day Seven guest written by Andrew Taylor

There is suspicion that some of us are gaining weight not losing with all the food we have aboard.  Every few hours there is a snack being offered of some sort and not many refuse except of course for moi!  Our meals are compressed into the 12 hours of daylight – breakfast is 0800, lunch 1230, and dinner at 1800. This leaves a 14 hour gap between dinner and breakfast; but don’t worry dear reader I can report that sneaky snacks appear at night including bowls of cereal being scoffed – so we are happy!

After a week we are still enjoying fresh fruit – apples, oranges, lemons, limes, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and cucumbers are going fine; only lettuce, avocados and pears are exhausted.

Tonight is the half way party of steak with a pepper sauce, sauted potatoes and carrots with hopefully sushi or cerviche to start if we catch a fish – we have just lost a whole 500 metres of line and all the tackle as the fish we hooked was bigger than the boat!  We are now on the second and last set of tackle; we cannot afford to lose another 500 metres!  Actually we do have a back up, Oxy is trailing something off the back that looks as if it better belongs on the beach in Cornwall (donated by Dr Ashby, a local Cornish doctor), so knowing his luck he might score.

It is clear that after a week and with the first weekly big box still half full that we are not going to go short, even if all refrigeration fails!  We have a lot of chocolate bars that are not being eaten and as it gets hotter are moving into the deep freeze to be enjoyed by future occupants!  In fact Paul and Caroline and guests are not going to need to shop for a while!

Finally on a personal note  we are now a week in and I am wondering where all the time went.  The boat continually powers on day and night non-stop it never gets tired! The most time I have ever before been at sea is 3 days this is a whole different dynamic.  I find myself enjoying the night watches more and more; tonight I am doing 2100-2400 and tomorrow 0600-0900. I listen to Desert Island Discs, Lana Del Rey , read a bit and stare at the moon and stars.  I have never experienced a whole sky of stars right down to the horizon, normally buildings, topography and light pollution get in the way.  Last night we mistook those on the horizon for ships lights.  All in all a wonderful experience!

Finally a big thank you to our provisioning buddies, Caroline and Consuelo, who have helped us keep our figures!

Xxx Andrew