Almost 2 weeks have already gone by since I first arrived at Antigua, and I’m slowly starting to adapt to the life of sailing in the Caribbean. The first of my days over here I frowned and laughed a lot about the funny manners and the strange solutions that now are a part of Maria’s and Sofia’s daily life as sailors. The girls have really gotten into a “mañana-mode”. They have like a lot of small things that need to be done on the boat, but they gladly postpone doing it to some other day. And if they actually do fix something, they proudly announce how good they have been working and that they surely after that deserve a real break (like taking a nap in the sun up on the foredeck). And then there is the “egg-discussion”. On my second day here Maria and Sofia came into an argument about storage of eggs. Maria claims that if you get fresh eggs that haven’t been cooled down yet you don’t need to store them in the fridge. And to make them less vulnerable you should rub some Vaseline on their shell. Sofia on the other hand was not so sure about this, and she is actually sort of an expert on the area since they have their own hens at her parents’ home. So the discussion got intense and it was fascinating to listen to their arguments. It’s funny how they could get so worked up about this (and apparently it wasn’t the first time they have had this discussion). But the thing I really got worried about in the beginning was their menu! When asking what we should eat they often suggest dishes such as: Tuna and rice, tuna and bread, tuna with egg and corns, tuna with couscous… or perhaps rice with paprika? They seem to have created these innovative culinary dishes around the fact that 2 to 3 ingredients (preferably canned food) is just a perfect amount of work and food for a meal onboard.
Yeah there are a lot of funny things going on at the boat Cantare and as a newcomer you can do nothing but laugh about it. But at the same time I’m realizing that maybe it won’t take that long until I’m starting to behave more and more like the sailors. It’s actually a big mission just making lunch onboard Cantare so why not treat yourself with the rest of the day off, just going for a swim and then drying in the sun. And by the way… tuna and bread is a delicious lunch!
/Deckhand Catrine