Books rule
Gudrun V
Axel Busch
Mon 14 Feb 2011 11:54
The sky is overcast today and there is a slight drizzle of rain now and then. But if the last days are anything to go by it should clear up a little over the course of the day. The afternoons are usually quite nice, and the wind becomes a little steadier. Unlike in the night, where the wind quickly and often changes from Bft 5 to 8 and back, accompanied by much and very sudden movement of the boat. Every evening I check the boat and reef down so I don't have to do it at night, because it's so much more work, and more dangerous too.
Yesterday afternoon I cooked a huge pot of vegetable stew before the eggplant and leek go off. I'm surprised that the fruit and veggies are holding out as well as they do, and I still have a good supply. No need yet to open any cans or ready meals. Later I cleaned the boat a bit and when it got dark I sat in the companionway under my little sprayhood and watched a movie. But sailing and watching movies at the same time doesn't do it for me. A good movie is something that takes you completely in and away from your surroundings. In addition there's so much noise on the boat that I need to crank up the volume or wear headphones to understand the dialogues. But that makes me quickly feel disconnected from the boat and the voyage, because I don't hear the wind and the sea, and I don't like that. For the same reason I don't listen much to music. Books on the other hand are awesome, you can be in two worlds at the same time. At the moment I'm reading "Badass", "Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser", and "The Republic of Pirates".
But movies are a good thing to have in case I should get becalmed for a longer time. Because that drives me crazy, and some disconnectedness can only be helpful then. I guess that's one reason why they carried so much rum on the boats in the olden days. Disconnects you very quickly from your surroundings, hehe. I haven't touched my rum supply yet, but in the last nine days I've emptied one bottle of wine and two cans of beer. It would have been a lot more beers if Rolf or Arndt were around, right guys? :-)
While cooking, cleaning and watching the movie I neglected trimming the genoa a little and only made 170nm in the last 24 hours. 1590nm (2800km) to go.