Day 4: Passage from MX to FP

All of us a bit “drained” after our rolly night, enjoyed a hearty breakfast of eggs and potatoes.  Captain down to take a nap; we are trying our best to conserve his energy for more squirrely times when he is truly needed at the wheel.  He is the best active sailor of all of us.  Cora still down in her bunk.  Calder doing dishes.  Emil and I did Duolingo French.

There are many interesting physical changes that occur to oneself out here, brought on by constant movement, changes in sleep patterns (and lack of sleep), and the seasickness meds themselves.  Our bodies are getting acclimated to the movement, but we are not quite there yet.  Sometimes we have nausea that is either hunger or seasickness; so we nibble and it often helps.  I’m trying to get two good meals in us daily.  We feel a bit of lethargy, with bouts of energy.   We are getting about 8 hours of sleep each in 24 hours, but broken up at times.  Trying to get Captain 8 hours uninterrupted sleep, but he will get called to the cockpit if any concerns.  My eyes feel heavy and dry, also dry mouth (which makes us drink more water) from the scopolamine patch.  We also hear and see things that aren’t there – from the sink drain sounding like people talking, music in the background, animals in the waves.  I had a good one last night where it looked like the head of a pig with an apple in its mouth sitting inside the red lit-up compass.  We know these are not real, finding them amusing more than anything else.  On super rolly passages it is challenging to exercise; though Calder is somehow still doing 100 push-ups daily during his night watch!

Today we continue to make progress mostly to the west, some south progress; there is a calm coming in soon without wind where we currently are and east of us that will be no good for sailing.  We are trying to outrun a calm!  We should soon be able to change our course south into the second leg of our crossing.  The second leg of this passage involves the northwest trade winds and getting set up to cross the ITCZ.  We’re hoping we can say see you later to these beam seas very soon, as they are exhausting.

This afternoon Cora made up some brownies, so happy that she is handling the sea state well, as usually prone to seasickness.  Chris feels a bit puny today, but is slowly coming back to life.  We started to head south this afternoon, putting the swells behind us; feels great.  We had fresh tuna poke for dinner. 

Overnight, we ran the Code 0 in the very light winds, usually do not like to run such a big sail overnight, but made the most sense with the current weather forecast.  We enjoyed a very slow, comfortable night; felt a bit like a “reset” after the wash machine.  I guess you could say that we are out of the wash machine and now hanging on the clothes line, gently fluttering in the sun.

Total miles over the last 24 hours:  100.9 nm (our slowest day thus far, but still over 100!)

Average speed in last 24 hours:   4.2 knots

Total miles of trip so far:  502.7 nm (passed the 500 mile mark!)