day 162: rip, shit and bust
Jamie- today passed by relatively uneventful all things considered. It was an incredibly wet watch, getting soaked by waves every few minutes. I considered how things would be different if we got voldemorts view on things rather than Harry’s. Maybe he’s just misunderstood. It’s fun to have no dodger it feels like we are racing in a stripped back style. WOD comes from our friend Luisa. Luisa, we sees ya! WOD: exhume. Exhume - to unearth something buried (especially a corpse). UIAS: I see you’ve tied my shoelaces together - I exhume you think that’s funny?
Naomi here- a wet watch indeed, as I slowly completed my prewatch rituals -attempting to make my cuppa, sitting on the floor eating breakfast crackers with mango pickle and choosing which wet clothes to climb back into- I would briefly catch Jamie’s eye as he hungrily awaited watch change. He was dripping wet and grinning maniacally. The grin I took as a good sign but later realised it was yet another sign of an unhinged madness beginning to descend upon my crew. I took a mental note of this. Taking over from Jamie I began to sense the edges of the madness myself. The swells rose and fell, the winds howled up to 32 knots for a time, the bow buried itself and cascading sheets of water came roaring down the length of the boat to fill the cockpit. The fun thing about sailing with such strong winds on the beam is that all the water funneling down the decks and sloshing up around the hull immediately gets turned into spray which is then transferred via the wind into my eyes. Occasionally much larger swells would roll through and bluebird would climb up and up and up and up before plummeting down into the trough and we would be faced with the next one. There are two or three other swells out here as well from, every other direction it seems like, much smaller but occasionally they would combine with the main swell to create vast steppes bluebird would cross much like jondalar and Ayla in the plains of passage. It’s probably day 3 now and we are feeling lively and boisterous now, we have our sea legs for sure. Altho the motion of the boat isn’t really conducive to really doing much at all, we spend our collective waking hours chit chatting across the bunks to each other instead of gripping our mattress cushions, sleep masks strapped tight on and pretending to not exist. This evening we are even attempting a team cooking experiment!
Matt here, Marius the freighter appeared on the horizon this morning, bit of a scramble as Marius appeared to have a stern for a bow. Turns out Marius was steaming to intercept us so we had to head up and slat around a bit waiting for Marius to pass. Everybody had a look as Marius is a bit of a celebrity here on the high seas. Also, night before something drifted up and over the boat. Unclear as to what but it floated so gracefully it was more intriguing than threatening, it gently kissed the backstay on its way out; the dishes drying mat saying goodbye. (N.b dictated by captain as I am on watch)
Miriam here, We ate! All of us, an actual warm meal even, with okra and everything. We’ve truly arrived now. Well adjusted to the conditions, which may mean we’re completely mad. This was supposed to be the worst day wind wise and while it began that way by the time my 3 to 6 shift rolled around the wind died a bit and the swell evened out some and I only got completely drenched a few times. There is nothing quite like watching the wall of water come hurtling towards you and knowing you just have to stand there and take it, steady on the helm. The sunrise was a moody tangerine cloud swell this morning. I actually got a reasonable amount of sleep and feel quite optimistic about getting plenty more tonight with a liminal watch break in the middle hunkered in the companionway in damp foul weather gear thankful for the dependable assistance of Wendy the windvane, steering us onwards through the night. The flying fish are huge out here in the pelagic deeps; I saw one that was bright blue and a solid 8” long that flew for ages. They still delight me, every time.