Readers of "The Adventures of Arctic Smoke" will recall the disappointment of the crew when, with anticipation that sadly remained unfulfilled, they hungrilly bit chunks out of Bursill's 2016 Atlantic Bread vintage. Then, at the insistence of the skipper, the inexperienced Bursill Baker, added only a modicum of salt. The result was a most insipid loaf. We were so disappointed that the attempt was not repeated and it was only when the Baker later honed his skills back at home, that the reason was diagnosed.
On this occasion however, we are most fortunate to have on the crew, Agustin Martin, renowned Canarian Baker, and award winning, Grand Canarian 'Port Officer Representative' of the Ocean Cruising Club (soon to be a fully fledged 'Port Officer', once his 1000 + mile qualifying passage from Ponta Delgada to Falmouth, has been completed and officially sanctioned by the OCC).
With our stock of Azorean fresh bread now exhausted, Agustin responded to the crisis with his customary enthusiasm and zeal (for which he is renown within the OCC) and produced this lovely looking loaf which tasted as good as it looked. Half was immediately consumed with lunch by the crew and only a stern threat to rig the grating and deliver two dozen lashes to any miscreants found nicking more of it, ensured its safe preservation for captain's breakfast table this morning!
Meanwhile back on the Ocean, progress continued slowly but surely at around 3 knots in a broadly North Easterly direction. It was actually very pleasant sailing albeit that for the second day in a row we forgot to deploy the crusing chute. The previous evening the same thought had occurred and I had instructed the crew, that, in the event of similar conditions prevailing the following morning, they were to remind their senile skipper to fly the chute. However, to a man, every last one of the lazy jacks failed to execute this simple instruction!
Bloody hell. Just had quite fright! I'm writing the recent paragraphs in the inky blackness of the night at 0515; when I hear a whale blowing alongside the boat. By the time I had stopped shaking and found a torch, which anyway hardly penetrated the murk, the creature had gone. How close had we come to our doom? I would at least have had some sort of fleeting understanding of events but imagine being woken from your slumbers by your bedroom being tossed around, whilst its fragile plastic walls are rent apart and the chilly waters of the North Atlantic Ocean are poured all over your bed!
Thoughts of various tales of yachts colliding with whales (at least one of which I have heard first hand) and of more recent and widely reported attacks by Orcas, continued to tumble around my mind for some time to come. I also remembered how I had laughed at my brother Isaac's account of a whale 'stalking' us on Arctic Smoke in just these waters in 2017. He heard a whale blowing behind the boat and was too frightened to turn round and look! Now I know how he felt!
Meanwhile, Orion has risen, Neptune is the brightest object in the sky and the Big Dipper is being slowly erased from the heavens as pre-dawn light gropes its way across the Eastern sky. What's more, three souls, extinguished in another Universe, continue to exist in this one - for now at least!
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