TNS460 26/05/2016
Greetings once again to our family, friends and loyal blog followers from
Fwd Stbd.

Now the sun is shining again after a small downpour we will jot down a few
highlights of the past 24 hours.

After a morning of simulated blindness, in which Islay helmed with the
assistance of the speaking compass, took a walk around the ship to feel the
tactile markers that are at intervals to assist visually impaired vc’s, did
a happy hour and finished by eating her lunch, which she didn’t enjoy
because she couldn’t see what she was eating, she felt she had an
appreciation of some of the difficulties and was glad she could take the
blindfold off.

In the afternoon, Maggie assisted the BMs in replacing the fore royal sail
after it had been repaired by Mike.  All went well, Maggie enjoyed the view
from the cross trees and the sail was set successfully.

In the afternoon when the blindfold was removed, Islay and Francesca climbed
to the top of the main-mast and joined the button club.  This was
Francesca’s first time up there and she felt very proud of herself.

Our two leadership at sea-ers then helped to test all fire hoses on the ship
– 10 in total – they managed to half drown themselves and others with
gallons of sea water but we now know they are all in working order – the
hoses, not quite so sure about I&F.

After dinner we handed all the square sails as the wind was due to drop off
during the night and we increased the engines for our journey to Samoa.

Our next watch started at 20:00 and Carol spotted a UFO in the sky – it was
flashing orange, yellow, blue, purple and green and appeared through the
binoculars as an upside down triangle.  Our watch were very excited about
this, however to our disappointment, Fliss burst our bubble by telling us it
was a geo-stationary satellite.

The crew gave Islay and Francesca another task in assisting with an
emergency steering drill which simulated what would happen if the steering
failed – two pulley systems were rigged to the rudder and two teams of 5
manually pulled port and then starboard to steer the ship in the right
direction.

This afternoon Francesca is doing disability awareness by being in a
wheelchair.  She spoke to Mislav about the use of the lifts and how he gets
around the ship.  She is currently sat in full oilies as the seat got wet
during the rain shower – now the sun is back out again, she is regretting
putting the trousers on.

Thanks to Ali, Tracey and all the mess men for continuing to serve up
delicious meals around the clock in all weathers.  Thanks to Shiny and Gaz,
the engineers for fixing the generator so we are back on full power and the
air conditioning is back to full cooling, cooking and washing.  Thanks to
Daz for keeping us healthy and well and providing us with clean clothes for
Samoa. And thanks to these and the rest of the crew for keeping us safe on
this vast ocean.

Having just crossed the 2000 mile mark since leaving Tahiti, we will now
leave you as we need to put out smoko shortly for those not tucked up having
an afternoon nap.

Fwd Stb – Karen, Jane, Francesca, Islay, Maggie, Bill, Jon, Stretch, Kyle
and Carol