At the end of her second watch of the night, 0400 to 0700, Roy surfaced to take a few photographs of her at sunrise to mark the occasion, following which he created an improvisation for Elaine birthday cake; a peppers and cheese omelette with bacon. Perfect!
Then after hoisting a double-reefed mainsail to ensure it didn’t blanket the headsail and slam around in the persistent swell, Elaine went off watch, but not before she received a birthday message from her sister in Ireland.
When she woke, Roy was baking a cranberry muffin loaf, which was thoroughly enjoyed with a nice cuppa.
We did have one incident onboard, though, but fortunately nothing too serious. At the time, Elaine had scolded Roy for not being more careful in the sun yesterday after noticing his face, torso, arms and hands were bright red, but then had to apologise when he indicated he’d just taken the new Niacin (B3) vitamin we’d purchased from Grace Pharmacy in Thailand before our departure and that he wasn’t only bright red, but his skin was itchy, tingly and sweaty too. With instructions to head for the shower and then covering him in Aloe Vera, he discovered the warning on the label this morning: “Niacin may cause a temporary flush, itching or tingling sensation in some people. This reaction is common. Discontinue use if you have a prolonged affect“; clearly he was “some people”, although he’s taken this vitamin regularly for years, albeit a different brand. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for his symptoms to settle back down, thankfully!
On the sailing front, the engine was switched off at 0915 after the wind had kicked back in; a breeze from the northeast of anything from 9 to 13 Kts, giving us a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of anything from 5.5 Kts to 8.5 Kts. Elaine had received her birthday wish; to be under sail on the day, not motoring or motor-sailing!
However, by this evening the winds had died down again, so we were back to motor-sailing, but happy to have enjoyed another day of sailing.
Birthday wishes from everyone on the evening net and birthday greetings from Keenan, as well as an update on his IOE, sealed a lovely day, topped off with some cranberry muffin loaf and custard, followed by a few of her Ferrero Rocher birthday gift chocolates; a birthday to be remembered indeed! As Michael, off Golden Spirit, said: “They’re aren’t too many people who’ve celebrated their 60th birthday crossing the Indian Ocean!”
