Day 2 – Getting our sea legs

Last night we had a very bumpy ride. The sea state out here is almost always challenging. We had a swell running of 4 to 8 feet, but there was a short period, which is the time between waves. Typically we like to see a period of at least 10 seconds. When it starts getting down to 7 or so, things get uncomfortable because the waves are steeper and closer together and they just keep coming one after the other. Well that’s what we had, about a 7 second period. The steep waves cause the boat to drop off the back side, slamming into the trough below. This creates an ear piercing crack, that makes you think the boat will split open. Fortunately, we didn’t have too many of these, just enough to wake you up periodically from your wrestles sleep!

The first day and night out are always some of the toughest as you get used to the routine, and the bouncing movements of the boat. It would be an interesting study to see how many calories you burn in a day doing this. You can’t move very far, but the distance you do move requires intentional action with a LOT of core and balance to make sure you don’t fall. Even sitting here now typing this I am straining to stay in my seat as the boat rolls steeply to the side.

Mateo working to build his core and balance!

We started our watch system last night. With four of us it makes it nice because we can do one 3 hour watch each, which gets us through the night. The first watch was mine from 7pm to 9pm. Mateo was on from 10pm to 1am, then Luke till 4 am, and Dean on the final watch till 7am.

During the day we don’t do formal watches, just whoever is awake takes on that roll and its usually more than one person.

We have been sailing with a double reefed mainsail, which means it’s about half its normal size, and a double reefed jib. At night we sailed with the mainsail only. The smaller sails slow the boat down enough that we can get better rest.

The day brought wind in the low 20 knot range with some swells approaching 10 feet. A few breaking waves slammed into the boat, causing a large jolt and a shutter, followed by a cascading waterfall of water. If you are not sitting behind our dodger, a kind of boat windshield, you are going to get soaked.

The crew are all working well together. Luke and Mateo are funny guys, always laughing at my really bad jokes. Laughing at my jokes is always a bad choice, because you are just going to get more of them, and they will gradually keep getting worse and worse.

Luke has volunteered to be the designated cook. Danielle did a great job preparing recipes for us to follow and labeling everything so we could find it on the boat, so Luke can just whip it all together. None of us ate much during they day today as we were busy hanging on, but Luke did make a hearty pasta dinner that we all enjoyed!

Thanks for the great dinner Luke!

We were able to cover 165 miles during our first 24 hours, which is a respectable distance, especially since we are experiencing a 1 to 1.5 knot current against us. Our weather router, John, sent an update for us, telling us to keep up what we are doing, sailing north for the equator. He also indicated that the wind would start to go down a bit as well at the seas. Sure enough right after dinner things began to settle down on the boat as the wind and seas came down. We are looking forward to a more comfortable night tonight!

Thank you everyone for your well wishes, your prayers for us and for your encourage meant. It means so much to know you care and are watching our voyage!