Race 11 - Day 20
Crew Diary - Race 11 Day 20
24 May

Thoughts on bread

One of the unexpected benefits of Leg 7 is the way that the boat becomes one huge proving oven. Bread-baking is a Clipper Race tradition much treasured by crews across the ages. Here on UNICEF, we have been adapting our baking as the weather conditions have gone from chilly to outrageously hot.

For many months, the crew has used Zina’s no-knead recipe starting in the second night watch by the red glow of a head torch. Our night watches have gained their nicknames: Pub Watch is 7-11 pm, Club Watch is 11 pm to 3 am, and Kebab Watch sees in the dawn from 3 am to 7 am. Now that we have constant heat and humidity reaching almost intolerable levels for our human crew, our bread dough is responding in startlingly different ways. Bakers on the Club Watch are creating dough monsters that rise and rise within minutes of being kneaded. The dough strains to escape the boundaries of the tins. Cinnamon buns become giant loaves, sandwich loaves collide with the oven roof, and mutant crusts overflow creating additional limbs on the side of a loaf. And if some unfortunate crew member forgets to put the stove on gimbals, the nascent bread breaks free and becomes a ski slope of crust and crumb.

Now we have mastered the conditions, we have been treated to a superb selection of baked goods - soft fluffy morning rolls, crusty tin loaves, and even cinnamon French Toast. This may be a long race, but mornings on UNICEF are just glorious.