Ready For Christmas!

So, we’re ready for Christmas!

We have hung our stockings by the chimney mantel. The holly’s been stolen from the local park and tossed around the stairway banisters. No white Christmas snow in sight, which is fine – just as I decreed.

The First Mate‘s in our land galley rustling up endless Christmas cookies. Including some for guests. Mulled wine‘s a-mulling.  Presents wrapped. Many seem to be book shaped and one might even be a new sextant. The Can Opener did get quite unsettled when I began pouncing and rattling it… 

Yes, Yuletide 2012 is just around the corner. 

So… exhausted from putting final touches on the Can Opener’s last minute to-do lists, I’ll just settle down here under the tree, next to this marine pressure cooker-shaped object and dream of magnificent fish chowders to come.  

I can’t think of anything better to do on the night-before-the-night-before-the-night-before-the-night-before Christmas. 

Can you? 



–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Provisioning The First Leg

Saturday early mornings in Caleta del Vélez, there’s a market that sets up and lines the waterfront street by the marina. 

Vendors and canopies pop up over rickety tables, mountains of goods are carefully laid out. Clothes, toys, sunglasses, bedsheets… and piles of food. 

From my perch on the Can Opener’s shoulder and by tweaking his ears starboard and port side as needed, I deftly steered him towards the prepared meat section. 

…Somehow, we still managed to arrive in front of the area targeting that evolutionary wonder, the herbivore. 

Nothing against herbivores. Most are quite tasty. Living with one, however, is another thing altogether*. Quite messes up my laboriously planned 5-course meat menus. 

Despite my clearly reasoned arguments in favour of daily steak tartar rations, the Can Opener was not to be deterred. He and the crew loaded up on (brightly coloured and admittedly beautiful in a still-life-in-oils kind of way) fruits and vegetables. We were planning a 5 day crossing of the Alboran and Balearic Seas and the Algerian Basin, so spoilage was not an issue.

The Can Opener mumbled something about scurvy as he passed the oranges to the vendor for weighing. Then he added ginger, packs of pasta and rice, and jars of tomato, pesto and British-mild veggie curry sauce to our satchel at the next stall (accompanied all the while by a mini lecture to me about bland food and seasickness).

I don’t need a lecture on seasickness, I know all about it. I’ll be bed-ridden for the first 3 days at sea as usual, and expect to be waited on hand and foot till it passes. Happens to the best of us.

By dint of much abuse of the First Mate’s ears, I was finally able to get him to relent and load up on copious amounts of sardine tins. Enough to get me through to Sardinia anyway. 

We do not eat kibble.

–Captain Cat

 (transcribed by the Can Opener)

* Note: The Can Opener is not an actual vegetarian, just a near one. He tries a lot and then fails… every time a juicy steak walks by. On passage, however, he sticks to his idealised agenda. There are no burger franchises at sea.

Passage Treats

Celebrating Passage Milestones

We are looking forward to the upcoming Spain-Greece yacht delivery. Time to plan for success!

Three weeks is great, it’ll be a chance to really get a feel for long passages. It’s also a looooong time for a small group of people to be in constant contact with each other in a constricted space.

So the Cruising Kitty is planning ahead with crew building treats and activities.

I’ve been researching online, on sailing forums and putting my thinking cap on (the one with the feathers). 

Here are the highlights of my favourite ideas so far…

Treats 

• ‘weekly snack bag’* – filled with junk food, candy, savory treats, catnip, etc for the week… for indulging as needed
• drinks or a meal from the cuisine of an upcoming destination 
• balloons, (reusable) streamers and silly hats for celebration meals (see below)
• chocolate always
• cookie mixes*
• cake mixes
• jerk beef, chorizo and sausage sticks
• cheese and crackers

Activities

• cocktail hour – team drinks (which may or may not be alcoholic). One hour each day when the whole crew is together. Even a two-person crew may not see much of each other when running watches. A cruising tradition
• tea hour – a non-alcoholic version of the above
  

• water guns*
• magnetic travel games*
• peg board games*
• temporary tattoos*
• nautical crosswords – still looking for adult level examples of this
• movie night with popcorn
• theme music day* – 50’s, Beachboys/Beach Music, Mariachi, Polka, James Bond theme songs — with coordinating accessories: eg Beachboys with Hawaiian leis, Mariachi with maracas, Polka with polka dots (the Captain’s personal favourite)…
• silly hat day
• holiday celebration meals – any events happening during your passage? Birthdays? Half-Birthdays? Boat anniversary? Valentine’s Day? April Fools Day?
• milestone meals

Timing

• daily for ‘cocktail hour’ 
• weekly for special treats and activities – probably best brought out on the same day each week at cocktail hour
• milestones – holidays, mid-trip and end-of-trip for special meals

‘Course not every crew is going to go wild for the same treats and activities, every group being different and all. But I hope to build up a time tested bank of ‘passage treat’ ideas to draw on. I’ll be testing and having the Can Opener taking my notes as we go.

What passage treats have you tried? Or what great ones have you heard of? How’d it go?

We’re looking for suggestions – the wackier and more creative, the better!

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

* Special thanks for these great suggestions to ‘The Cruising Couple’, ‘Ex-Calif’ and ‘drew23’ on Cruisers Forum

Team Building

Next: Delivery Crew Team Building

The Plan to Blast Off

 

Part 7 of Captain Cat’s Invincible Plan to Get Cruising:

Despite the gastroenteric impossibility of a cat actually ingesting that much, the Captain was once again draped over my writing arm, yet another glistening bowl of salmon bits within the circle of his left paw.

‘We’ were hard at it, hammering out the final phase of our action plan. I had just typed the last bullet point, when all feeling drained from the arm pinned under the cat.

So here it is.

The final instalment of our Invincible Plan to Get Cruising:

Planning the Voyage

• Sketch out route for complete voyage
• Plan each passage/ leg of voyage: 
• navigation 
• route, distances 
• expected weather
• best times to leave
• Plan crew events for morale: 
• goodbye dock party / start the passage
• mid-passage celebrations 
• milestones & mysteries
• birthdays, seasons, festivals, holidays
• end of passage celebrations etc
• Provisioning:
• food 
• equipment, spare parts 
• medical kit

Admin

• Financial: 
• banking, cash access, credit
• manage monthly payments/ investments
• income stream plan etc
• Personal & ID: 
• passport
• visas
• emergency contacts system
• Health: 
• checkups
• vaccinations
• prescriptions for medical kit
• Housing: sell, rent, house sitter?
• Contents: sell, give away, dump, storage?
• Photographs: scan and store all on hard drive and online
• Communication set up: 
• internet connection
• travel record blog
• land mail collection

Revise and update final cost estimates for all – and add in buffer!

Any other critical departure preparedness areas to cover?

   

Guest post by

–The Can Opener

(supervised and approved by Captain Cat)