Atlantic Crossing Part II Days 19 & 20: Fun with Moustaches

Tuesday July 8, 2014

We finally made our escape from Bermuda yesterday. It was one of those things where we could have stayed forever, yet at the same time I was ready for a change of scenery. As much as I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of an 18 day passage, at best, it was time to go. We’d already gotten one extra day at anchor due to light winds and we couldn’t drag it out any longer.

We let ourselves sleep in one last time, and then with the dinghy still in the water, made our way to the market to do the smallest provisioning we’ve probably ever done in our lives. A head of lettuce, one cucumber, two tomatoes, and a five pound bag of rice. We assume this, along with the dozens of canned goods stashed in the boat, will last us to the Azores. Had we not bought the rice I might be a little worried, but if it comes down to it, I think we can live on that if necessary. Then it was back to the boat for me to finish up the last of the prepped meals and snacks so that once more, I don’t have to do any real cooking until my body gets used to the motion of the ocean. The chili was simmered, cooled, and contained, and then as the last chocolate chip cookie was making it’s way out of the oven, we were already getting the anchor up.

Our first stop on the way out was for fuel. Since leaving Miami we’d probably used about 20 gallons and we definitely wanted to fill them back up before we left.  It was hard to release my vice like grip while handing over the $7/gallon for our fill up, and even worse when I handed over a tip to the attendant, after he made me nearly fall off the boat trying to fish a dollar bill out of the water for him that had fallen out of his pocket. With that done and what’s probably going to be half of our monthly cost just spent on fuel, we were ready to head out into the wild blue yonder again.

Motoring out of the channel we had the main all raised and ready to pick up the 18 knots of wind that were waiting for us on the other side. Finally, some movement in our future! Shutting off the engine we cruised along at a mighty 6-7, although I have to imagine there was a bit of a current working in our favor. 18 days? If we can keep this up it’s going to be more like 12. And I can definitely handle that.

Wednesday July 9, 2014

I think I may have mentioned back when we first started this crossing from Miami that we were given little gifts to open every few days from Matt’s mom, something to look forward to on our otherwise boring days. We had been really good with sticking with the dates of when to open our packages ‘Open on day Five, Open on day Twelve’, but when day Seventeen came around I decided to hold off. It was the day before we got to Bermuda and I was already extremely excited about that, so I figured I didn’t need the additional elation of a present at the time. I figured we’d wait until we’d been back on the boat a few days and push it back, opening it when day Twenty Two came around, therefore leaving ourselves the added cushion of extra presents when this crossing lasts over 37 days, if it happens to. Matt, ever the stickler for playing by the rules, did not like the fact that we did not open it when we were supposed to and as soon as he found out that we were now three (passage) days behind on opening it, forced me to dig into it earlier than I had planned.

Now, we love the stuff that’s been in our other packages: puzzle books, coloring books, stickers, ect. But this one happened to be right up my alley and totally made my day. It was full of beauty tween ‘beauty’ supplies that I’m just as thrilled to receive even now that I’m in my 30’s. Bright shaded crayons to color my hair, mud face masks, stick on nail art, and temporary tattoos. I could really have some fun with this. Rocking back to my early 90’s self, I can pull a Jennifer Gardner in ’13 Going On 30′ where I’ll have a full evening of pre-pubescent beauty routines where my hair will end up six different colors just to see what it looks like, and my nails will be Bedazzled to the point of suffering from temporary blindness any time the light hits them. The best part of it all is that I can actually look over to my husband and quote, “Matty!! Hey Matty, come here!!” as I get ready to break out my Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ moves. Geez, …I really need to stop with the obscure movie references.

One other thing that was included in the present, fun for the whole family, was a package of three stick on mustaches, each with a different theme or look.  There was the Rascal, the Outlaw, and another that Matt was quick to pop on his face.  I was doubled over laughing so hard that I barley had time to get the camera out to capture the moment.  I’m sure we wasted a good hour of our time as we peeled off and stuck on new mustaches, playing the roles of the different looks we were offered.  As Georgie followed us around the boat while we were in hysterics, we decided there was no way we could leave her out of the fun as well.  A cat with a moustache.  Hmmm….I might have to try the hair coloring crayons on her next.