Are zee papers een order?!?

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Today the Maverick Dream was boarded by a Safety Inspector for the World Cruising Club. We were told to produce life vests, a grab bag of survival gear, flares, a life raft, a manual lever for steering the rudders should the wheel fall off, a knife, and a long list of other gear. With a couple of small exceptions, our craft passed inspection. The same fella will return on Tuesday morning to follow-up and make certain that we have a medical book and a certificate verifying that our life raft is up to snuff.

The inspection went something like this:

Inspector: "You will need _______ (insert some piece of safety equipment here), in case your craft were to sink."

Cap'n Mark: "Yes, we have that, but our craft will not sink. It is a catamaran, and they are extremely safe."

The inspector would look at our optimistic Cap'n and envision the skipper of the Titanic as he declared his craft unsinkable. This happened repeatedly, as one might imagine. With every declaration of confidence from Cap'n Mark, there came deeper inquisitions from the Inspector. It was, in fact, The Spanish Inquisition.







Not so unexpected.

Your humble scribe, for one, was pleased to have an Inspector who cared enough to distrust us and dig deeply.

We are already working out jobs on the boat, as well as a watch schedule:

During the day, all will be on watch.
6:00 pm to 8:00 - Dinner (all on watch)
8:00 pm to 10:00 pm - Barry and Tom (co-watchers)
10:00 pm to 1:00 am - Cap'n Mark
1:00 am to 3:30 am - First Mate Louis
3:30 am to 6:00 am - Keith

We're all comfortable with this schedule, because it puts Mark and Louis on watch during the most intense times. I am an early riser, and my watch means I get to watch the sun come up. Barry and Tom are early to bed types, so they too are happy. Neither Mark nor Louis have any faith at all in the rest of us, thus proving they are fit to lead. All happy.

In the next couple of days, we will take the boat out for a bit of fishing and a lot of training. In addition, we will be taking day classes on various safety and skills subjects. By the time we set sail for realsies, we will be a Swiss freaking watch.

We are getting on well, but I miss Ellen and Ro.




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