Dear All,
Today I would like to introduce you to Margeurita. She is unreliable, temperamental, unpredictable and indispensable. She is our sail sewing machine. She is entirely her own boss! She dictates the size of the stitches, which stitches and the combination of stitches. There is no rhyme or reason to any of it. Andrew and I have long danced to her tune and our tolerance of her waywardness knows no bounds. In the end she gets the job done even if it's entirely on her terms.
Two days ago we worked on the Code 3 for a solid 48 hours round the clock repairing a rip from the head to the clew. In order to achieve this we worked in shifts with Susan and David P. Andrew and I did six hours and gratefully handed over to Susan and David for the next shift. Susan is a seamstress and works to the highest standards! The clash of the titans began! Every stitch Margeurita produced, Susan unpicked! Six hours later a battered and bruised Susan and David succumbed! There would be no perfection! Two days later Code 3 was back flying at the front of the boat and all Marguerita’s strange combination of ragged stitches are doing a great job holding the sail together.
Just to add to Anne’s post, today was a big day on Punta del Este: Anne had the miles to qualify as a circumnavigator, one of an elite group. Add to that it was a big birthday for Andrew which he didn’t admit to as he and Anne celebrated with an ice cold tonic. .JPG)
However Andrew must have wanted us to know it was his birthday as he had written it in the log! Fortunately Lennart noticed and informed us just as we were in the final throes of preparing dinner and suddenly we had a cake to make, we couldn’t let the occasion go by unnoticed! A bit of pandemonium in the galley but we managed.
So Congratulations to Anne (RTWer) and to Andrew (almost RTWer) a very Happy birthday.