The Countdown
It's currently 3 AM, Brenda is down
below sleeping, and I'm on watch. It's pitch black outside, it's
foggy, it's cold, and even though there is a pretty steep 6-8 foot
swell, the waves are hitting us from directly behind, so other than
the surge from the boat surfing down the face of the waves and the
odd out of place wave that hits us on our side, the motion of the
boat is relatively calm (relatively is the key word here folks).
We left Monterey early this afternoon
with our sites set on Santa Barbara. It's only about 220 nautical
miles away, but with the forecasted light winds, the passage should
take us about 2 days. 2 days at sea really isn't terribly long, but
it sure can seem like forever sometimes. Especially right now while
I am struggling to stay awake and I have 2 more hours on my shift
before I can wake up Brenda. I'm thinking about moving all of our
clocks forward just so I can wake her up earlier.
I have a few things that have been
rolling around in my mind tonight while I've been struggling to stay
awake. The first thing has me a little upset. I don't know how to
exactly say this, so I'll just come out and say it. Brenda ate our
entire bag of Cheetos on her last shift. The entire bag. Actually,
I take that back, she left me 3 Cheetos and the Cheeto dust in the
bottom of the bag. This could be the first time we've purchased
Cheetos in our 15 year history together, so as you can imagine, I was
sort of excited to tear into those suckers. No tearing is happening
from this boy. All I get is 3 lousy Cheetos and the dust in the
bottom of the bag. Now, I know what you are thinking, “the dust in
the bottom is the best part!” Well, you are right about that, but
still, I'm a little annoyed that she didn't just eat the whole bag.
3 and the dust is just a tease.
One hour and 48 minutes to go till I
can wake up Brenda.
Hmmmm. What should we talk about now?
How about the fact that we are on a big sailing trip and we aren't
sailing. We are currently listening to the rattle of the diesel
engine because there is absolutely zero wind right now. None. And
unfortunately, that's been a large part of our trip south. We have
motored for roughly two thirds of our time at sea since we left the
Seattle area.
It seems that the west coast of the
United States either has way too much wind or not enough. When gales
have been blowing, we have been waiting them out in port. When the
gales die down, we rush out to sea trying to catch the dying wind and
end up with not enough wind to keep the sails full. But I guess
that's better than getting beat to a pulp as we battle 40+ knots of
breeze and massive waves.
One hour and 22 minutes to go. Then
it's sleepy time.
I have been amazed at the fact that we
can sleep when the boat rocking and rolling and the engine is
running. It's not exactly quiet in here and the it's not exactly
like sleeping in a bed that is resting on solid ground. We are both
light sleepers, but when our shift on watch is up, about 18 seconds
later, as fast as we can get out of our foulies, we are sleeping.
It's instantaneous and it's deep. And then 3 hours later, we are up
and back on watch. I think utter exhaustion is contributing to the
ability to be out cold instantly. I think it also helps that we
trust each other to take care of us and the boat. If I didn't think
Brenda was capable of keeping us safe, I wouldn't be able to sleep
period, and I'm sure it goes the other way for her. Trust is pretty
important out here. So are Cheetos. I sure would have liked some of
those Cheetos.
One hour and 6 minutes to go, but who's
counting (me).
What now? Well, I'm really sleepy and
I would really love a cup of coffee. I don't really have many vices.
I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't partake in any type of drugs,
and I can't even swear. It's how I was raised and it stuck. Some of
you are probably thinking I'm crazy for not enjoying some of the
finer things in life and some of you may think it's admirable.
Either way, it doesn't really matter because it's just who I am. But
the one thing that I don't want to live without is a delicious cup of
hot coffee. It's my vice. I love it. It's tasty, it smells
heavenly, and it helps get me going in the morning. But I have to be
careful, because if I have some past about 11 AM, I won't be sleeping
that night. It's one and done in the morning for me. As much as I
love a good cup of Joe, on passage it doesn't happen for 2 reasons.
The first is that something as acidic as coffee in our bellies while
the boat is tossing and turning is a recipe for one of us hanging
over the side and blowing chunks. The other reason is that neither
of us want to have anything in our systems that will keep us from
falling asleep instantly when our shift on watch is up. We don't
want our 3 hours of sleep to be wasted on anything but sleeping.
42 more minutes till I can wake up
Brenda.
I'm going to play a game on the
computer. I'll get back to you in a minute....Solitare victory! Woo
Hoo! I'm a champion!
34 more minutes till I can wake up
Brenda.
Stay awake, stay awake, stay
awake............
33 minutes to go.
I just saw another boat show up on AIS
(for you non-boaters, AIS is “automatic identification system”.
Basically, on our computer screen, a triangle shows up that tells all
the pertinent information about the other boat – the boat name, speed,
course, destination, where it is in relation to us, etc... It's amazing). This traffic on the high
seas is currently 22 miles away from us and heading to San Diego.
It's 696 feet long and going 18 knots. That's fast, especially for
such a big boat. Unfortunately we won't get close enough to see them
on the horizon. It's just going to be us out here tonight.
18 more minutes before I can crawl into
beddy-bye.
Screw it...I can't take anymore, I'm waking her up.
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| We made it to Santa Barbara! That's us anchored in the middle. |
 |
| Rounding Point Conception, aka "Cape Horn of the Pacific" at sunset. |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MVzsGnDHGs
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