day 118: from squall to squalor
Miriam here, The moon is growing full, lighting the waves to silver. The light shift when a cloud passes by is dramatic, the entire scene going dark more so than ever on land with the vast reflectivity of this substrate we travel upon. Last night many birds visited me on watch, boobys and frigate birds I think from the silhouettes, circling to investigate before winging off into the night. The wind continued fierce into the morning, requiring all of us to hand steer through the night and resulting in less than optimal sleep as we hurtled and rolled through huge disorganised swell at top speed.
And then today happened. I started by making a couple of huge messes right before watch, starting our slide into squalor. First a chia cereal spill in the food storage space (aka Mines of Moria) which left gelatin and superfood powder enriched chia everywhere including the tool bag. Then my elaborate mocha (a spoonful of everything) went over and I cursed like my mother, top volume all the expletives all at once. Thank goodness for help from everyone cleaning it all up. Chia forms an incredible gelatinous goo when it gets wet which then acts as glue as it dries again so despite our collective best efforts it will take a couple more once overs before we cease to find it everywhere. At least everything smells like chocolate now.
So many more things happened on this eventful day but I’ll leave that for others to tell and wrap by saying the haircut I gave Naomi (adding quite a lot of hair to the cockpit mess) is top notch and she already had mange. It definitely wasn’t my scissor skills, which are exceptional considering I have no prior experience especially while rocking and rolling on the sea. I didn’t even nip her ears once despite her cringing. If anyone has home bleach tips please report back; her new look would be even more stunning with frosted tips.
Naomi here, it took a lot of convincing to get Miriam to stop going over the parts she already cut too short to “fix” them… at this point we may have to have a few navigational errors before getting to Fiji to give my hair time to stop looking like a mangy dog… Things haven’t exactly dried out today, last night as we careened around in 25-28 knot winds we had various mishaps with the hatches, including the last of the bread pudding filling up with salt water through the galley hatch… Miriam and I woke this morning to dishes flying from one side of the cabin to the other , followed seconds later by half the things on th chart table going flying in the other direction…. While it has been really fun to be surfing and consistently getting such high speeds it’s also been a bit hectic down below, tonight feels like a much more mellow and sedate 20 knots of wind. This afternoon jamie set up his famous annual bluebird charity treasure hunt, it was quite the event, requiring a lot of set up and coordination, as well as Otto the autopilot as Wendy wasn’t cooperating with the conditions. We had many clues, each accompanied by a shell, and in fact we got so good at guessing the clues we even skipped right over one ! After being led from one end of the boat to the other above and below decks we finally reached the Grand Prize, peanut m and ms! We grandiosely shared these with Jamie as well. Tonight we had cheesy milky baked potatoes sort of like scalloped potatoes, but also with cabbage and aubergine, and duck confit. for lunch we had leftovers of last night which was veggie , rice , boiled eggs gado gado sauce and almonds. We did not have leftover bread pudding with banana and caramel sauce. But we did have peanut ms.
Kia ora, Megan here! Well, we’ve found it, everyone. We’ve found it: the number one salty sailory feeling. This one is flexible and it only requires two things: you must be steering, and you must be as wet as humanly possible (but much more so than is humanely possible). I had been mulling this candidate over for a while now. I knew that navigating squalls felt salty. Particularly in the deepest parts of the night, when black clouds cage you and smother all light, and the only rain you really feel anymore is the waterfall of it from your jacket’s hood onto your nose and lips.
What solidified this feeling as not only a serious contender, but the winner of the salty awards was my watch this morning. We had been galloping over rolling hills of waves for the last day or so. Hills that are also in the midst of some seismic shift, as they heave and swell and tunnel beneath you. I have been trying to anticipate their movements, looking over my shoulder to watch them advance, and trying to find the path through their peaks and valleys. At night, even with the late waxing moon, this is made more difficult and I welcomed the dawn. When done well, you hardly feel like you’re sailing anymore, instead being carried by each giant wave and handed to the next. Sometimes it begins to feel easy. As I passed in the low hand of one wave to the next, I turned to look behind me. There was no horizon. The mangled, white hand of a breaking wave reached for me, then above me. As I craned my neck, as I audibly gasped - I knew before it happened that this moment would be salty af. A sheet of water snapped down on me; I went from entirely dry to entirely wet; and several litres of water descended vertically into the only hatches we hadn’t closed. Jamie tells me this is a real passage now. Long live the swamp.
I wrote that this morning believing it would be the most important event of my day to document - but gosh what a day! I want to give honourable mentions to: emptying the tool bag, tying it to a rope, and tossing it in the ocean to then wrangle in like a monster fish in a desperate attempt to rid it of chia seeds; being selected for the most exclusive treasure hunt in the South Pacific - and winning! Thank you, Jamie, our gracious host, MC, and behind the scenes crew; eating peanut mms, eating ruffles cheddar and sour cream, eating fried duck and cheesy potatoes!; watching Naomi transform into a very cool twelve year old (does anyone know how to diy frosted tips? Just spitballing here can we use household bleach? The hair is expendable she already has mange). And Wendy joining the team again after a brief hiatus, welcome back Wendy! Pō mārie!
Jamie here, what more can I say, we are truly in the swing of things now, swanky haircuts and all, is it a crime to overuse commas? WOD - sneer. Sneer: a facial expression containing a triumphant, condescending smirk or smile. Used to belittle another. U.I.a.sen: oh I know the baker, he live sneer the candlestick maker