It's a Big Ocean; Thank Goodness for Snacks

As faithful readers are aware, sailing a boat across the world's largest ocean - any ocean in fact - is a full-time job. The boat just keeps going and going, and since one of my two basic rules on a boat is to not hit anything, it's pretty important that someone be dimly awake all the time. Not to say that there aren't boats who sail without someone on watch (we've only seen on boat in the last five days), but it's just better all around if someone is up. The autopilot works fine in steering the boat to a compass heading, but the wind can pick, necessitating a change in sails, etc.

Thank goodness for snacks. Waking at midnight , or two am, or four am - or even, sometimes waking at noon after an early am watch, is no small feat somedays, and for me at least, a small pack of Oreos goes a long way to making the transition. Of course, I miss my beloved Kit Kats, my long time snack of choice. I believe it's the 75th anniversary year of Kit Kats - a little-known fact brought to my attention by Jennifer's thoughtful purchase of the commemorative edition of the famous Kt Kat during an airport layover recently. But I digress.

We have a small armamentarium of snacks on board - everything from hard candies to the bland ginger cookies that work well in settling stomachs suffering mal de mer. We have chips, cheeses, crackers, and no shortage of candy bars that seem to be able to survive the tropical heat. There's a bowl we have sitting out with these various treats, and we were fortunate to replenish some dwindling supplies in the Galapagos. For this passage, Oreos are becoming the snack du jour, and we bought a number of boxes containing the proverbial 4-cookie "lunch pack."

One such pack is never enough for me; I start and finish my night watches with a pack, and wash it all down with the other critical element of blue-water passage making: the low-calorie flavored powder known as C-Lite, which comes in many flavors. These packs flavor a liter of water - each of us has a Nalgene for personal drinking - and the favorite flavor is lemon. In the Galapagos you often face a limited choice, so I made the mistake of overstocking the pineapple flavor, which does not sit well with the crew. Luckily, Jennifer, on the aforementioned layover, also stocked up on lemon.

I miss my Kit Kats, but I'm glad for the Oreos. It's a big ocean.