Atlantic Challenges
Hello Everyone, This is my first post directly from the boat. I haven't been posting
because there hasn't been much good news to post thus far, but I
wanted to keep you all up to date in any case. It's now been 18 days since we left La Rochelle, with maybe 11 days
remaining until Rio. It's amazing to me that 11 more days at sea
doesn't sound like much anymore - before this 4 days was the most I
had been at sea. Unfortunately we are somewhat behind schedule
because of lighter than expected winds so there are still quite a few
miles to cover. We're a couple days away from the Doldrums, and then
have the equator to cross before we can get to the steady tradewinds
that should take us into port. The trip thus far has been full of challenges for me, just not the
sort I would have imagined. The seas have been mostly calm, and yet
I've yet again had to deal with my seasickness. I've been sick a few
times, once when we hit a patch of more serious weather, the other
two times when the boat was flat calm. Of the 18 people on the boat
my body has certainly been the slowest to adjust. The last week or so has been pretty good, but I'm still having to be
very mindful and focused when I'm belowdecks or if there's more
motion on the boat, or during night watches when I'm tired and can't
focus on the horizon. I've tried different medicines but my current
plan is to just let my body deal with however it feels. Whereas
earlier in the trip I would recover and immediately try to get back
into the routine of the boat and force my body to adapt, now if I
have any doubt I try to get extra rest and avoid anything that might
spur on further queasiness. The crew have been incredibly supportive
throughout, volunteering to cover my watches so that I can get extra
rest and actually forbidding me from coming down below or spending
time in the galley. Still, having to rely on the support of others
has been difficult to adjust to. I knew joining the race that
teamwork would be essential on the boat, but I hadn't expected the
lessons to come in this form. We're currently in last place by hundreds of miles, so maintaining
the exuberance and motivation from early in the race has been tough.
At one point we chose, as an entire boat, a high risk/reward strategy
to try to move up from where we were in 8th place. Excitement was
high as we changed course from the rest of the fleet and had 5 days
of challenging sailing while executing the plan. We weren't able to
get the wind directions that we needed to get the most out of it but
still managed to move to within a few miles of 6th place. Then the
wind hole that we had been fighting hard to avoid caught us and we
were basically stuck in place for 3 days while the rest of the fleet
pulled away. We're now making up ground while the others are
entering the doldrums and slowing down, but it was very tough to be
bobbing around in last place in the hot sun with no wind knowing that
everyone else was putting miles in between us. After we finally got some steady wind to work with we put up our
spinnaker and started making good speed. Then yesterday during our
lunch handover between watches, with everyone on deck, the block
holding the spinnaker halyard at the top of the mast came down and
the entire spinnaker fell into the water and under the boat. Pete
was incredibly calm in directing the crew to recover the sail, which
we did. We managed to get the entire sail back, but with huge tears
in it. It was fairly disheartening at the time after having spent so
much energy just to keep it repaired and flying. Still, there were
positives in that no one was seriously injured while recovering the
sail, and we had another sail up within 40 minutes. Melissa has been
leading the huge repair of the spinnaker, with help from others for
the last day and a half. As I write this there are three people
working on patching it back together. We're all still focused on making up ground and catching those in
front of us but it is a monumental task and we've all been dealing
with the possibility of a second consecutive last place finish while
having fewer days in port. Still, after a month at sea, I'll be very
happy when we do pull in to Rio.
because there hasn't been much good news to post thus far, but I
wanted to keep you all up to date in any case. It's now been 18 days since we left La Rochelle, with maybe 11 days
remaining until Rio. It's amazing to me that 11 more days at sea
doesn't sound like much anymore - before this 4 days was the most I
had been at sea. Unfortunately we are somewhat behind schedule
because of lighter than expected winds so there are still quite a few
miles to cover. We're a couple days away from the Doldrums, and then
have the equator to cross before we can get to the steady tradewinds
that should take us into port. The trip thus far has been full of challenges for me, just not the
sort I would have imagined. The seas have been mostly calm, and yet
I've yet again had to deal with my seasickness. I've been sick a few
times, once when we hit a patch of more serious weather, the other
two times when the boat was flat calm. Of the 18 people on the boat
my body has certainly been the slowest to adjust. The last week or so has been pretty good, but I'm still having to be
very mindful and focused when I'm belowdecks or if there's more
motion on the boat, or during night watches when I'm tired and can't
focus on the horizon. I've tried different medicines but my current
plan is to just let my body deal with however it feels. Whereas
earlier in the trip I would recover and immediately try to get back
into the routine of the boat and force my body to adapt, now if I
have any doubt I try to get extra rest and avoid anything that might
spur on further queasiness. The crew have been incredibly supportive
throughout, volunteering to cover my watches so that I can get extra
rest and actually forbidding me from coming down below or spending
time in the galley. Still, having to rely on the support of others
has been difficult to adjust to. I knew joining the race that
teamwork would be essential on the boat, but I hadn't expected the
lessons to come in this form. We're currently in last place by hundreds of miles, so maintaining
the exuberance and motivation from early in the race has been tough.
At one point we chose, as an entire boat, a high risk/reward strategy
to try to move up from where we were in 8th place. Excitement was
high as we changed course from the rest of the fleet and had 5 days
of challenging sailing while executing the plan. We weren't able to
get the wind directions that we needed to get the most out of it but
still managed to move to within a few miles of 6th place. Then the
wind hole that we had been fighting hard to avoid caught us and we
were basically stuck in place for 3 days while the rest of the fleet
pulled away. We're now making up ground while the others are
entering the doldrums and slowing down, but it was very tough to be
bobbing around in last place in the hot sun with no wind knowing that
everyone else was putting miles in between us. After we finally got some steady wind to work with we put up our
spinnaker and started making good speed. Then yesterday during our
lunch handover between watches, with everyone on deck, the block
holding the spinnaker halyard at the top of the mast came down and
the entire spinnaker fell into the water and under the boat. Pete
was incredibly calm in directing the crew to recover the sail, which
we did. We managed to get the entire sail back, but with huge tears
in it. It was fairly disheartening at the time after having spent so
much energy just to keep it repaired and flying. Still, there were
positives in that no one was seriously injured while recovering the
sail, and we had another sail up within 40 minutes. Melissa has been
leading the huge repair of the spinnaker, with help from others for
the last day and a half. As I write this there are three people
working on patching it back together. We're all still focused on making up ground and catching those in
front of us but it is a monumental task and we've all been dealing
with the possibility of a second consecutive last place finish while
having fewer days in port. Still, after a month at sea, I'll be very
happy when we do pull in to Rio.
