30 Dec, 05 – 19:58
For GPS position, race position and miles from La Gomera, see http://www.atlanticrowingrace.co.uk
Some people have expressed concern over my dining arrangements since the unfortunate demise of my camping stove.
Worry not, I’m looking after myself and eating properly. Not necessarily enjoying every meal, but that was so even in those now almost-forgotten days of hot meals.
At the moment, a typical day’s menu might be:
Breakfast – Wholebake flapjack or 9 Bar
Elevenses – sprouted chickpeas with soya sauce, biltong
Lunch: prawn and pea chilli casserole, made with my Commercial Freeze Dried ingredients.
CFD prawns
CFD sun dried tomato
CFD peas
Chopped dried apricot
Chilli flakes
Black pepper
Combine all ingredients, add sufficient water to cover, leave to stand for at least 3 hours. Serve with a bottle of desalinated water.
Dinner: same as lunch (I make 2 batches at once to save time)
Dessert: CFD blueberry and raspberry compote (surprisingly good)
Plus various nibbles of flapjack, chocolate, biltong etc during the night shifts.
So I’m surviving, but I do love good food, and this isn’t it. No matter how high quality, no matter how much variety, there is something about expedition food that falls short of the real thing. To say I am looking forward to some good nosh when I get ashore would be a serious understatement. Much of my day is spent daydreaming about luscious food.
I wouldn’t mind so much if I appeared to be losing weight. ‘Bulk up’, they said. ‘The weight is going to fall off you.’ So I put on 20 pounds, and as far as I can tell it’s all still there. Dammit.
Wind: 12-15 kts, E
Weather: overcast
Sea state: moderate to rough
Hours rowing: 11