Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I shot up and peered into the locker. Sure enough the little, rusty wheel was turned all the
way open. I swung hurriedly down into the galley and struck a match, offering it to the
stove and turned on the gas handle. Nothing. We were out of cooking gas!
“Oh God, what are we going to do for cooking for the next three weeks or so?”
“What about that other one?” Gavin asked hopefully, “Maybe that's got some left in it.”
“Well try, hook it up and see, but that's the one we took off on the way to the Galapagos,”
I reminded him.
Gavin's attempt at the old bottle only confirmed our situation; we were out of cooking gas
for the next three weeks plus! No more hot meals once a day. No more hot coffee in the
morning or on watch; no more cups of hot tea; no cooking of fish: we would have to dry it
from now on. This was a bitter blow.
“Fucking hell! What are we going to do?” he said.
“Christ, I don't know. What can we do? What have we got in the way of heat?”
“Well, we've got plenty of candles,” he offered hopefully.
I brought out a candle and lit it, sticking it into a hole on the stove where the gas ring was
situated. I put a pot of water on top and we waited in suspense.
After ten or so minutes I stuck my finger in, “Nothing doing. It's tepid and the candle has
burnt out.”
“Well, what about one of those paraffin lamps?”
I took one off its gimballed holder on the bulkhead and lit it with a match. I placed it in a
large pot so the flame would be protected from the wind and would build up heat. I bal-
anced our stainless steel toaster plate on top of this and placed the water pot on top.
“This has got to work; I just know it,” I said confidently. Again we waited in suspense for
about ten minutes, and again we were rewarded with the same results: tepid, lukewarm wa-
ter.
“I could get water hotter in our solar shower,” I said in disgust. Gavin lost interest in the
hot water project and disappeared from reality into the Western he was reading.
I don't think he realizes the significance of this blow, I thought, as I went and sat outside
disappointed and worried. What to do? How absolutely idiotic of me not to have made sure
of such a basic item. Not just any old item either, this was a big item. Cooking was all im-
portant on a boat thousands of miles from anywhere. It had an ominous angle to it. Would
a chain of disasters start linking up against the brothers Grimm?
