don't get sea sick!! I've managed to stop feeding the fish for now and
am hoping to stay that way all the way to Qingdou but it was a bit rough
for a while there! Had to schedule throwing up time into the time it
took me to get kitted up for being on watch!! I'm still feeling a bit
spaced out though from the drugs that have helped me to so far keep down
some water, a hot choc, few mouthfuls of 2 minute noodles with a weird
selection of vege and some tinned corned beef and smash! Oh and some
chocolate! Ahhhh talk about fine dinning!!
We had a fantastic race start and got off to a great lead (which has
been lost since but we have our tactics and there is a long way too go!)
we made so much ground that the media helicopter thought they'd missed
us until the pilot spotted us off on the horizon! It was initiation by
fire for us new leggers who joined in Cape Town. We had some great wind
for the race start that was super exciting!! (Although feel for the two
boats that are back in the marina in Cape Town after being involved in a
collision on the start line). The wind then died as we entered the wind
shadow of table mountain and we got our light weight spinnaker out.
Wasn't long before it had to come down and the wind kept climbing! We
managed to work our way through almost our whole sail wardrobe to
settle with Yankee 3, stay sail and main with 2 reefs. In the middle of
the night with the wind gusting over 35 knots we were over powered and
with 5 of us up on the foredeck, fought hard to bring the yankee 3 down
(During the nice little window of time you get of feeling fantastic
after throwing up!!).
A lot of people were suffering from sea sickness and with the boat
bouncing hard through the waves on crazy angles life on board was
initally a matter of just getting through it. Very little sleep was
had and one of my off watches was spend gripping onto the edge of my
locker beside my bunk to stop being bouced our! Last off watch I had
a great sleep however woke up realising just how sore my muscles and
whole body in genereal was, being unaccustomed to life at sea. I'm sure
i'm covered in a rediculous numaber of bruises that i'll never get a
chance to even see! Today however the wind and sea have settled, we're
averaging about 10 knots speed over ground off about 17-18 knots true
wind and the sun and smiles are out.
I'm losing track of the days already, but there are A LOT to go!! We
are in our own wee world with our own boat time, No longer south african
time but a long way off being on australian time yet too. Not that the
time matters other than to know when your watches start and finish. Its
1430hrs boat time, I've just come off the helm at the end of our 6hr day
time watch (Saw a turtle (actually I just about hit it!!) and the others
saw a whale behind us but i couldn't turn and look while i was driving
(dedication or what!! haha) Lunch is tinned sausages and smash (powdered
potoato, just add ?water and = instant mashed potato.) Then it's bed
time for me until I'm woken at 2000hrs for the first of our 4 hour night
watches.
I've also changed my socks, cleaned my teeth and had a baby wipe
'shower' - doesn't get much better than that! Life on board Team Finland
is all good!
Night Night
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment