31/12/12 - Lord Nelson

Not much sems to have happened since Boxing Day. We got back to our berth in the submarine base on the 27th, most of the voyage crew left, the port side rubbing strake got slightly mangled due to the force five afternoon breeze pushing us against a block of concrete, the dead dog having gone on strike. Once the wind died down, all was secured.



On the 27th and 28th PC and voyage crew started arriving. On the evening some of us went out to meet some of the Brazilians from the VC in Rio. We were navigated through the streets of Rio by Marcin with his unerring sense of direction and an address on the back of an envelope (or so it seemed).



However, by using the Metro, (trains much wider than the Tube and with less seats, hope Boris doesn’t see them), and taxis,



The first one waved down gave a long reply which sounded like the equivalent of "I don’t go sarf of the river, gov." More cabs were stopped and eventually with a cry of "Follow that cab" we got to where we were supposed to be. On arrival this caused great consternation as the proprieters had been lead to believe that they were hosting a small select gathering, not a whole bloody ships crew! All I can say is that liquid sustenance was hard to come by…..



On the 29th more voyage crew started to arrive, less one cadet, who by ticking the wrong box on the immigration form found himself in an expensive game of table tennis, ping, he’s in Rio, pong, he’s in Paris! An interesting question comes to mind, can you claim your airmiles by being deported?

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At the moment we seem to be in limbo, a barge arrived yesterday morning to refuel the ship. Due to incompatability of connectors no fuel was transferred, despite an adaptor being made and the barge shoved off.



This morning most of the food arrived. We plan to leave here tomorrow for a prime position at the New Years firework display, return here on New Years Day, get fuel and the rest of the food, and then it’s off to Cape Town. Hopefully Derek has got his sums right and we won’t run out of food halfway across. Should this happen, then the old rules of sailing ships will come to the fore, the youngest get eaten first!



In the chartroom there is a routing chart for the Atlantic. This has lots of circles and arrows flying off in different directions. Hopefully Marcin will manage to connect all the the right arrows, gather up all the contrary winds in a bag of suitable material, AND, all you newcomers to the sea, NO BLOODY WHISTLING!!!!! We don’t want a rerun of Troy, the aftermath, do we?



Lou, Aft Port.