The blog 6th of February
A tale of hard luck
I have to start in on the evening of the 5th of February. We had just enjoyed a lovely meal prepared by Matt B and Donald, The latter being highly supervised by head chef Matt. We all looked at each in anticipation of the big event, dicing to see who cleans all the pots, pans, plates and cleans up after everyone. This was a colossal evening for anyone to lose the dice, the washing up was stacked ten high after enjoying Barbara the sheep’s 2 hind legs. Person after person diced, each time the tension grew in worry that it might be them that lost the dice until the ship’s funny man Dan Hill threw a double one. There was no coming back from this, it seemed he was destined to have the washing up. Thoughts turned to who would get the second lowest as they also would get the washing up. Again person after person continued to throw until alas the dice were finished and our plucky young Scottish Diver Kris unfortunately lost.
Dan and Kris got to work feeling a little hard done by but being happy go lucky guys they carried on with the job in hand until the villain in this tale of hard luck enters the fray. Matt Hoey a Royal Marine mountain leader of more years than he cares to remember takes it upon himself to mock our jovial friends until the smiling Scotsman has had enough. He stands up for all that is good and right in this fair yacht and challenges our heinous villain Matt to an arm wrestle. If Kris wins Matt finishes off the washing up but if Matt wins Kris and Dan continue with the washing up and Kris makes Matt cups of tea on demand for the rest of the week. The crowd gasped as these 2 titans of the yacht entered their arena; but who would win? Good vs evil, Marine vs Diver, Scotsman vs Englishman. Both challengers settled down into their starting positions, Matt with the one man fog horn Molly Macpherson and fellow marine Matt B in his corner and Kris with fellow dishwasher Dan in his corner. They’re off !!!!!! Matt Hoey the bookies’ favourite takes a storming lead in this epic battle but the plucky Scotsman comes back from the death and pulls it level. Matt knows he’s in a match now and is scared! He can’t hold back his emotions any longer “I think he’s got me” cries the proud Marine until hard luck hits our young Diver. When in the heat of battle his elbow slips on the table and a triumphant Hoey capitalizes and beats the plucky challenger, the crowd were distraught calling for a steward’s enquiry or at minimum a rematch but the victor running scared retired to his bed safe in the knowledge he had secured his cups of tea for the week.
Dan and Kris’s plight was not helped by the fact the yacht was not generating any hot water. This proved to be a source of great frustration for our favourite 2 sailors, continually having to put the kettle on to generate clean hot water. They slaved over the kitchen until 11pm and then slipped off to bed knowing it would only be a short sleep until they were up again. Kris was up at 4am for his anchor watch and Dan at 5am for his and then both were up at 7am to help get the yacht ready for setting sail.
7am came and the ship’s company was up bright and early. Woken by slight winds, glorious sunshine and the faint call of a happy penguin. Today was the day, the day they set sail for South Georgia and to walk in their heroes’ footsteps. They all had been dreaming of Sir Ernest Shackleton which only added to the buzz of excitement sweeping across the yacht. Work had to be done first, Shady’s watch were first up for weighing anchor and setting sail. Shady’s watch comprises of Shady their glorious leader , Josh our jovial American friend , Donald our Scottish heart throb, Matt B our talented head chef and Major Molly Macpherson the gentle giant with a story or ten to tell. The anchor was raised with little to no problem under the stewardship of Shady and with great delight the gallant yacht Xplore set sail for South Georgia to make the dreams of these courageous sailors led by their fearless leaders Tim and Tony.
Kris