Off we go

Turn to at 0530 and we got off the dock an hour later. Since I was doing eggs for breakfast I could stall a little and help out on deck, going out of the harbor was beautiful, seeing the fort walls that surround the city from the water was great. While I was making breakfast I didn’t feel so great, the combination of being below and the smell of garlic got to me. I sat on deck for the rest of the morning and at 10 threw sausages and sauerkraut in the oven for lunch.

While I got to take a nap the rest of the crew was on deck going over drills; when I got up I felt a lot better and confident that I could make dinner.

Day one over.

Jesse on the helm, waiting.

Robin's usual spot.

Richard.

Tenley, Grant and Laura.

Chris.

Last day on land

It was a very busy day, in the morning I went to the store to pick up a few last minute things and in the afternoon Brooke helped me move some extra food to a passenger cabin. Milk, pasta, popcorn and some extra cans of tomato stuff. Then Mitch put up a net by the freezers for my potatoes and I tried to hang up a few baskets, I hope they stay in place. A lot of people went out dinner because it is our last day here.

We get off the dock at 6 am and the adventure begins. We might stop in Bermuda.

More shopping

I spent the morning doing prep for lunch because I knew I’d be gone shopping. When lunch was all done I hung out with Mike and Drew as they worked on the engine cases on deck. Then John and I were off to shopping land. Stopped at Walmart again and then Home Depot to pick up Don, and then off to Costco. Our cart was very full but I got most of what I wanted, there area few small things that’ll got pick up at the grocery store tomorrow, hopefully I can find yeast.

Lucky for me, the bar across the street offered to buy us dinner. There has been at least one Bounty crew member there every night or so since the boat got here. It was amazing. Lots of beer, salad, chicken with garlic, onions and cream, stir fried veggies, fried pork and rice with beans and plantains. The cook told me how to do it so now I can imitate it.

Last day off in Puerto Rico

I finally got to sleep in, that hasn’t happened in a long time, every other day off we got up early and went on an adventure in our rented car. Jesse and I went to internet land for awhile, had a lunch of fried snacks and then went back to the boat to relax. After awhile John showed up with a rental van, Mike, Mitch and Matt joined us on the trip. We went to Office Max, Home Depot and Wallmart, we never made it to Costco.

Air con!

The air conditioning worked in the galley today and that made me very happy. I made French toast for breakfast, pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner. During the day I moved around lots of food, rotated vegetables and moved more things from the fridge to the freezer. More sails got bent on and lots of last minute things are being done.

There was a party on the boat tonight for an acapella group from Brown that sings sea shanties.

Tenley.

Sam putting on the jib.

Robin

This morning I was really nervous about everything, cooking, the crossing, having to cook that long, but after Robin and I talked I felt a lot better. In the long run what it comes down to for me is the fast that I’ve had hardly any time to put together that huge food order and let the idea sink into my head that I’ll be cooking for 6 weeks or so. I ended up making another small order, milk, some canned goods and a potatoes and onions.

In the afternoon Brooke helped me bag up most everything in the galley, dishes, utensils, baking trays, bowls, produce, bread and anything that we consume from. We had dinner on deck and then we bombed the boat for bugs. I really wish we had done this two days ago, before we got all that food.

New line, life rafts and Barron.

Tons of food

Today was the most stressful crazy day I’ve ever had on the boat. In the morning Brooke helped me with last minute cleaning things and other people who finished their jobs came in and helped too. Our order arrived around 0930, everyone got in a line and things started to slowly come down, I put Brooke in charge of canned goods, directing where they needed to go and un packaging them. We had 11 pallets of stuff to unload, 6 of them were frozen things. After the first one was done the hydraulic jack they had broke, so there was a long wait for the truck to move closer to the boat, we were able to put everything from that first shipment away.

The truck moved closer and food rained down like a thunderstorm. A few times I got really overwhelmed and asked them to slow down a little. When the frozen meat came on that’s when I got really stressed. I filled two freezers and I still wasn’t done putting chicken away. Chris came in and really helped me out putting things away and moving things around. Everyone was in on the unpacking of boxes and throwing meat to the freezers. It was cool when the 300 pounds of coffee came down because they wer elight enough to just toss to the next person. Eventually everything was on the boat and things were being put away slowly.

Brooke and Sam took care of all the canned goods and I’m very thankful that it all got put away in an organized fashion, both in the overheads in the galley and down below in dry stores. By lunch time not all the frozen goods had been put away, because there was no more room. John and Chris went out to buy another freezer, once it was on the boat and plugged in I was able to fill it. Meat was first, fish, bacon and meatballs mostly, then some frozen vegetables. Everything wasn’t going to fit, I was really strating to stress out, but Rebecca said I should take out whatever I’m going to cook this week, that helped a lot. At the end of it we only have one and half ice chests filled with stuff that won’t fit, hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to move more things around.

The refrigerators on the other hand are full as well, the port one is filled with butter, garlic, guacamole and tortillas. The starboard is full of veggies and cheese.

By three o’clock everything was pretty much put away. Matt worked on storing some lettuce and I started dinner, coconut chicken curry and eggplant with spinach.

I declared that it was a night for mojitos.

Wall of butter and garlic.

Bread.

New freezer.