Thursday, March 22, 2012

3/22/12

Noon Position: 43 13' S, 42 54' E, SOG 5, COG 070, Day's Run 150nm,
Week's Run 869nm. A graph of the wind speeds I've had for the last 5
days would make an excellent saw. Yesterday was one of the days that
makes life worth living - reaching at 7.5kts under crisp blue skies and
a warm sun, racing over flat seas. Then, of course, the wind went up,
the seas went up, then the wind went down, and the seas haven't quite
gone down yet, so this morning we're lumping along under a fabulous grey
overcast, Odyssey doing her very best to chafe the stitching right out
of her sails. Shaking reefs and gybing repeatedly in the drizzle this
morning as the breeze died left my hands doing a good impression of
cadaverous claws, and I took a certain morbid pleasure in peeling great
strips of skin off before they dried out again. On days when I go
barefoot (a novelty in being so far north!) I have to restrain myself
from doing the same to my feet, as the callouses from several months of
barefoot warm weather sailing are now slowly sloughing off from the soft
usage of socks and boots. Despite (or perhaps because of?) my lovely
entertainment, I'm feeling a lot more energetic - I've been trying to
get more sun when it's available, been eating more, gotten a little bit
of exercise, and been trying to get a bit more sleep when I can, all of
which combined are having a beneficial effect on my well being. This
ill-mannered lurching about, that I will have to endure for a few more
hours until the seas go down, is not.

1 comment:

  1. Eric,
    You even make peeling skin sound interesting!
    Stay safe.

    ReplyDelete