Mel and Annie Atlantic Crossing: Blog 7 and 8
26th January- Mel – I slept through the alarm twice last night – lovely for me as it means I must have been sleeping really deeply, which can only be a good thing, but v annoying for Annie who had to keep track of time on a watch with no light and shout at me when it was time for me to wake up! I’m putting it down to the fact that I’m so used to life on board now that my brain tunes out noises it knows aren’t important – or that’s my excuse anyway!
Our cabin is actually not a particularly quiet place to sleep – especially in rough weather. The rudder is a few centimetres from our head and bangs around like a crazy thing in a cross swell, water breaking over the cabin top sounds like someone thumping the hell out of it and the autopilot is constantly chuntering away to itself. So I think my subconscious sees all these noises as normal, plus the alarm, and disregards the lot! But I expect if a new noise occurred I’d be awake in an instant wondering what it was.
I think we are both so used to life on Explore now that we’re actually going to have more of a problem when we get to land. We’re used to the watch system, we’re used to never walking more than about 6 steps, and those holding onto something, we can both make a decent cup of coffee on deck in the pitch dark and the basic hygiene facilities are no problem at all – it’s amazing how clean baby wipes can make you feel! We are also totally happy with rowing for 12 hours a day, if someone asked me to do that at home I’d think they were nuts and I probably couldn’t do it, even if I wanted to, but out here you just get on and do it as we’re not going to get to Antigua if we don’t!
When we get to land we are going to have other problems, some more fundamental, like walking! We won’t have used those muscles for so long it will be a struggle, as will standing upright on a non moving surface. And the noise and bustle of normal life will be overwhelming. I’ve had problems adjusting to land life in the past after an ocean crossing, I’d never slept walked in my life but started doing it on land during Clipper (I was hoisting sails, flaking sails, helming and all sorts in my sleep!) and that was after only 3 weeks at sea; God knows what 2 months is going to do to me!
Mel x
PS I’ve dug out my mobile (horrible I know at sea) and am using that as an alarm now, and will change the alarm tune daily in an attempt to wake up!!
Blog 7: WARNING! STOP. EXPLOSION IMMINENT. STOP. CONSUMPTION OF FLAPJACKS REACHING DANGER LEVEL. STOP. IMMEDIATE RATIONING REQUIRED OF SECOND TUB. STOP. I REPEAT. STOP. IMMEDIATE RATIONING REQUIRED. END.So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty much the usual… Even managed to fit in a spot of rowing in between all my various social engagements.
We’ve not had the best in the way of sea conditions of late with reports of worse to come in the next few days but we’re still racking up the miles and making good progress towards Antigua. We’re managing to hold our race position too which is excellent news. This looming bad weather is threatening to bring with it strong winds in totally the wrong direction which, if we do actually suffer from it, will be frustrating beyond belief as it will probably see us back on the para anchor going nowhere for several days – not what you want when you’re racing at all! Fingers crossed that it either decides to die down before reaching us, or decides to make its merry way elsewhere.
The sea right now is kind of lumpy. Not easy to row in at all (see Mel’s last blog). We’ve become quite the weather experts of late and are using all the correct terminology to describe the conditions:
Lumpy. Rock & Rolly. Wobbly. Downright nasty. Swelly. All over the shop. A bit curly wurly. Bloody indecisive. A right pain. Scary as hell. Swoopy, to name but a few. Earlier I came on watch and asked Mel what it had been like. She replied with “$*!!£?! &%!£**!!” – We’ll just add that one to the list I think.
Apart from weather issues, we’re having a lovely time on board it has to be said! Spirits are high and neither of us appear to be flagging yet but there’s still a couple of thousand miles to go so maybe I’m speaking too soon!
We have a new friend, who we’ve christened Fred (after our favourite La Gomera ferry). We’re not sure what he is (Or even if he’s a boy for that matter. Do fish have a sex??). Anyhow, Fred is an electric blue fish, approx 2-3 ft, who’s been following us for some time now. He’s beautifully sleek and elegant through the water but when he decides to jump… well, he’s rather fat to be honest! (Personally I think he’s chomped too much of the Shepherd’s Pie that we’ve been turfing overboard!!). Anyone got any ideas what type of fish he may be?
We also see flashes in the water at night time. Some kind of electric fish akin to an electric eel perhaps? Answers on a postcard to: Annie Januszewski. Stern Cabin. Little Red Boat. Atlantic Ocean.
Annie x
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