Yesterday it was Bill's birthday so last night we had a little surprise party in his honour. Happy birthday Bill. Amanda whipped up a cake in the galley and Bill was lured out of the engine room where he was doing a late shift. The engineers gave him the rest of the night off and here was much merriment and hilarity, a lot of which was due to the fact that our first mate has become world famous in Cape Town.

Waldemar featured in the newspaper yesterday where they told of his heroic exploits in Harald the inflatable ... "chasing the Pintail for five hours in rough seas in the cold Southern Ocean, and only coming back to the Esperanza after running out of fuel." So Waldemar was dubbed 'Captain Courageous' and teased mercilessly. Penny is still repairing the Harald which took a bit of a battering coming alongside the Esperanza as it steamed after the Pintail.

Back to Bill's birthday cake though. This was no ordinary cake. Mixed to a recipe handed down to Amanda by her mum and baked in the galley of the Esperanza, this cake was a truly remarkable cake. Delicious beyond description. But that's no surprise really because Amanda and Miguel are remarkable cooks. Like almost everything else on board, lunch and dinner on the Esperanza happen as regular as clockwork. At 12:00 hrs and 18:00 hrs in the mess there is a feast awaiting.

And it's a good thing too because the crew of the Esperanza work very hard. Even in port there are people on watch 24 hours a day. At sea there are people in the engine room and on the bridge 24 hours a day.

Today we finished 'bunkering' (that means taking on fuel) and readied the Esperanza to move to better berth. The one we were in was a long way from town and it's a high security area so it's hard to get in or out.

We're now in a more accessible berth which is good because we have an important guest coming on board in the morning.

- Nick

Web editor