Chapter 22.

As always the first day on sea is boring, nothing much to do but steaming to the grounds, so everybody just takes the chance to sleep, eat and talk some more. This time round the eating is more prominent than normally, but that is very simply because the food is better than it ever was before. Will is on a roll again. Breakfast is a royal spread of some kind of French toast he calls wentelteeftjes. Bread soaked in a mix of eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon and fried in lots of butter. Also buttermilk pancakes, some sort of tiny pancakes the Princess calls poffertjes that he serves with icing sugar and for the ones who prefer a more hearty breakfast there are eggs sunny side up, bacon, sausages and white beans in tomato sauce.

The only one not enjoying any of the food is poor Crosby. Just the smell of all that food is enough to have him hugging the rail and feeding the seagulls. And Art isn't enjoying the huge spread but happily munching his way thru another bowl of yogurt. He is still itching and scratching, but Will said it could take two weeks before he noticed anything and so he is willing to wait.

After everybody is done eating, Crosby comes in again and he is by now light green and looking for some chemical assistance to feel better. But Will will have none of it. With a somewhat snappish.

"Give me those." Will steals Crosby's anti seasickness pills and washes them down the drain.

"Sit, eat and drink this. But slowly. It will make you feel much better than that artificial junk." And Will parks Crosby in a corner with a small bowl with yogurt with some cereal and a mug of a steaming hot mint, chamomile, something infusion. And staring down the others. "Okay, no more smoking inside while Crosby is feeling sick it only makes him puke more. So everybody out. NOW."

And once again, the Princess isn't challenged while he is in doctor mode, Keith is upstairs driving the boat so he won't override his greenhorn, so all the smoking party's can do is head outside to get their fill on nicotine. Lynn spends some time hanging around the door to see how Crosby is doing. And only after he sees that Crosby is getting some color back can he be convinced to go outside and smoke.

The rest of the day most of the crew is outside, cleaning shooting a breeze. Crosby is in bed with Lynn coming in every fifteen to thirty minutes just to see if he needs anything. Will tries to get his galley organized but that is hard with a hovering Lynn in the same place.

"Lynn sit down or get out. Stop standing in the way."

"I'm not in the way, and anyway, I have been here longer than you, you can't tell me what to do."

Yeah Lynn is throwing around fighting language.

"I can't? wanna bet? KEITH, LYNN IS DOING THE COOKING TONIGHT."

And before Keith has a chance to respond Lynn is sitting in his corner watching Will messing around in his galley, grumbling under his breath that the Princess doesn't fight fair.

By dinnertime everybody is bored. All the work they could do is done, the idea of setting pots early in the morning is actually welcome by now. But right now they have nothing to do but enjoy the smells coming from the galley. So when the Princess finally orders everybody inside there is a bit of a stampede and within seconds everybody is settled in and shoveling food onto their plates.

Art and the Princess are enjoying a chicken broth served in a cornbread dish. And the smell is amazing.

The others are having dinner as well but some other dishes, it is the first day of Art's anti itch diet and Will is being supportive and joining the poor itchy crewmate in his very restrictive diet. Not that Art is complaining at the moment. The one complaining is Travis.

"What's with the soup, and why are we stuck with T bone stake, baked potatoes, French fries, green asparagus with egg and butter sauce, green salad and homemade apple sauce?" While he is complaining Travis is hearing what he is saying. And with a chagrined "I just completely blew that complaint didn't I." He looks around the table to see all his crewmates grinning with their mouths full and nodding in agreement. Yep, not the best way to complain about not getting chicken soup while at sea, but on some level they are all agreeing, the soup and fresh baked cornbread does smell divine and huge chunks of perfectly cooked beef do get boring.

Will tries to explain why Art and he are eating something else but at that moment Keith makes a discovery.

Holding his fork up with a bite size purple thing on top he glares at Will. "What the bleeb is this?"

But before Will has a chance to respond Lynn pipes up, he is always so glad to show off his knowledge and he did help prepare the salad, cutting and washing the lettuce, chopping onions, garlic, apple, tomatoes, cucumber, red and green peppers and even the flowers . "That's a flower Keith. One of the purple ones."

Now Keith is glaring at a speedily deflating Lynn, he was so proud to know the answer and it backfired again. Cutting Keith short on a tong lashing of Lynn, Will jumps in.

"Lynn is right, it is a flower. A clover actually. The orange ones are Indian cress, purple and yellow violets, reddish pink hibiscus and more purple lavender in there. And they…" He doesn't get a change to get much further

Poor Crosby gives a gasp and clamping his hand in front of his mouth he mumbles something about poison and runs off to the toilet, again. It is a good thing that his normal spot in the corner was switched to one on the edge for this trip. No way that everybody could have gotten away in time. There is some consternation but Will completely ignores poor Crosby and goes on as if nothing happened.

" As I was saying, they are all perfectly edible." And meets the stares from the others with a rather bored expression. He isn't half as upset or concerned about Crosby's prolonged illness as the others are. For the last twenty-four hours Crosby his upset stomach and puking has been one of the hot items of the day. Mostly because the big guy has never had any kind of seasickness or other belly complaints before. Now he is constantly running to the toilet to either puke or pee. Seems he is becoming a bigger tinkle Tina than Tinkle Tina, formerly known as Deathwish, is.

Since the rest of his crew are eating their flower ridden salad without any clear negative effects Keith chomps down on his clover, but he can't help thinking he is eating cow fodder. Who ever heard of humans eating flowers.

"It's weird, eating flowers."

The grinning reply by Will is to be expected." cauliflower, broccoli and artichoke are flowers too. And you don't mind eating those do you?"

All they can do is affirm that yes they do eat those. Even if broccoli is nobodies favorite. From there on it is a small step to other not favorite vegetables and so on to fruit and other food. End result, nobody likes Brussels sprouts or sauerkraut. Will adds something called schorseneren or viper root in English to the list. The name alone is enough to convince everybody that it is true on Will's side. Nobody understands the excitement about Caviar, herring roe, quail or frog legs. And they are unanimous against Edgar Hansen's love of raw herring no matter how much good luck it might be.

Soon after dinner everybody is off to bed again, getting the last bit of rest before the opie grind starts.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoy the story , please let me know.