3/18/12

Noon Position: 43 41' S, 30 39' E, SOG 6.5, COG 110 Day's Run 135nm.
An impartial observer, seeing the sunrises that have greeted Odyssey in
the last 48 hours, might be tempted to impartially observe that the
Indian Ocean was kindly welcoming me with open arms. A pale orange disk
rising out of a fiery sea, crisp blue sky with just enough clouds to
catch the sunlight to best effect, watched over by teeming petrels,
shearwaters, and albatrosses. These idyllic sights could certainly
produce a warm and fuzzy feeling in our impartial friend. What this
friendly observer failed to notice was the oh-so-welcoming moment
yesterday morning when the wind howled from 15 to 40 kts in the amount
of time it took me to put on my foulie pants, leaving me to claw down
oodles of flogging canvas on a deck plunging over and through every
available wave, or the frequent squalls that rolled through all
afternoon, keeping the wind at gale force, leaving Odyssey rolling
listlessly in the inevitable lulls on the backside of each squall, or
the always entertaining heavy rainfall, accompanied on at least two
occasions by the ever popular hailstorm. And this morning, While our
impartial observer was basking in the glorious daybreak, commenting on
the beauty of nature, I was cunningly using my face to break my fall
against the chart table, across the cabin from the galley, trying to
keep a half full water bottle upright in one hand and fiercely gripping
the lid of the teapot in the other. Actually, in retrospect, it seems
like just the sort of welcome the Indian Ocean would extend with open
arms. Welcome to the Indian Ocean indeed.