Friday log from Guy Hoare aboard British ARC yacht Island Packet 380 – Panulirus

If we have learned anything from evolutionary science it is that the species most likely to thrive and survive is the one which shows most readiness to adapt to circumstance and its surroundings. And so it is with us aboard the good ship Panulirus.

For a little over a week we have settled in to a comfortable routine: we wake up shortly after sunrise and, after a spot of breakfast, spend a few industrious hours fixing whatever we might have broken in the previous 24 hours – spinnakers, whiskerpoles, sprayhoods and water-pumps – before succumbing to the inevitable temptations of lying around the cockpit idle in the tropical sun casting a lazy eye over a magazine. (And of course keeping a sharp eye out for those pesky snoozing whales. Rumour has it they have been pinching people’s rudders at night.)

Yesterday however, a shift in our environment forced a departure from our familiar regime: grey clouds loomed, harbingers of possible rain. Quick to respond however, the evolutionary pioneers of the Panulirus adapted their way of life. After an earlier than usual lunch, the boys retreated down below to sit on the sofa and watch films over a few cans of beer, while Clare stayed up above, reading her nautical almanac in the drizzle. Today a cloudless blue sky heralds a return to more traditional pleasures: poetry readings, sculpture workshops, and painting.