As of Sunday evening the 15 of august the Helena has been a non-smoking boat. I know you probably won’t believe me if you have ever met any of the men on this boat, but it was a mutual and voluntary decision to quit. Okay, I must admit that I did pressure Rolf into it, but after about 6 months of me nagging about it he was quite ready to give up. Arent and Matty however quit because they wanted to themselves.

Although it sounded to me like a good plan for them to be able to do this together, it unfortunately doesn’t really seem to work that way.

It has been a little over a week now and it has been awful. I can honestly say I was the only sane person on the boat this last week. Rolf had a horrible temper, Arent decided life wasn’t fun anymore and just watched seasons and seasons of Lost and 24 and Matty didn’t allow the S-word being used anywhere near him and was hiding most of the day under his sheets. There was no sitting outside in the cockpit together anymore, as this only forced social behavior and reminded them of the fact they couldn’t smoke. No morning coffee, no French bread lunches, not even oorlam! The only time they would see each other and exchange some sounds (I wouldn’t call it a conversation) was during dinner. The rest of the day was spent sulking.

I dare write this to you now, because the worst of it seems to be over. Yesterday we sailed from Ahe to Apataki and encountered some engine troubles which Rolf coped with without first throwing all his tools at the engine and swearing for half an hour (which, for all non-technical people like me, is not the way to fix an overheated engine). When we had our anchor beer/oorlam -outside in the cockpit no less- Matty actually uttered the S-word several times himself. And later during movie night I heard Arent laugh at least 15 times. So good times are in sight again for the non-smoking yacht Helena!