4/4/12

Noon Position: 41 50' S, 78 52' E, SOG 5.8, COG 115, Day's Run 30nm. A
little depression is tracking straight over the top of us today as it
makes its way SE into the 50s, bringing with it absolutely lovely
weather. I ended up spending the night hove to, since the breeze was
coming hard out of the E all night. The 15 or 20 miles to windward we
would have made wasn't worth the pain of beating into 25-30kts, so I got
a good night's sleep slowly drifting SW, then began sailing again this
morning after the breeze had shifted to the NNE. Going "upwind" in
these seas is a joyous prospect - I have to bear off to keep the boat
moving and avoid the worst of the slamming, and even so this morning on
4 separate occasions Odyssey dropped off a wave hard enough to slam open
the mirrored front of the medicine cabinet in the head. The percussive
crack of the door slamming into the bulkhead almost on top of the
shudder and duller thud of dropping off a wave was heart-stopping the
first time it happened - My mind instantly raced to shearing bolts or
busted bulkheads. By the fourth thud-crack-bang I just grumbled and dug
out a roll of duct tape to tape the thing shut. One of the
multitudinous little bottles of 5-hour energy drink that some mumping
villain hid about the boat has taken up residence in the medicine
cabinet, but at least has confined its contribution to the day's fun to
sliding back and forth with a gentle "tink" on each side of the cabinet
instead of leaping forth and covering me with caffeine-y goodness. The
little bottles seem to be breeding somewhere amongst the cabbages - I
seem to find a new one every few weeks lurking behind a potato or
pretending to be garlic powder among the spices. I need to figure out a
way to train an albatross to carry freight and ship the lot of em off to
Turkey or wherever my darling younger brother happens to be at the
moment - He at least would put them to good use by drinking them.