10 10S 126 30W
Libertyatsea10
Fri 9 Jul 2010 15:57
busy day with the spinnaker and little wind yesterday, but a relatively calm day after
all the excitement lately, which has left us all a bit tired.
Getting warmer as it is now oilskin jacket and shorts at night!
Jeurgen kindly doing some math with Bj, Bj seems to enjoy it as they laugh a lot
but BJ keeps putting on the CD "Teacher, Leave those kids alone:"
Another musical extravaganza last night, from MIKA to Mozart and lot of dancing on deck which poor Bj needs
to work off some energy
today we have to sort out the pole to goosewing. we have been resisting the pole as it takes a week to sort out, but our course is inefficient and irritating..
sailies will know all the detail (yawn)
we are now in this routine which all works around the watches, clockwork and everyone works to make it efficient.
The musical interludes are really remarkable now because we only have the sounds of the sea, and Liberty. It is amazingly calming and focusing
We know every sound from the rush of water (wish it was rushing more!) under the hull, to the clipping of the halyard against the mast
the creak of the sheet when it stretches under a gust and the flap and sometimes bang of the sail when a wave backs it. Then the rig rings for a moment and fades.
AT night the ships clock bells the watches, and sometimes someone is making a drink, the kettle cymbals and even the spoon stirring in the cup is all magnified and
important and clear. When something changes it is an alert and almost in unison, Gram and I now recognise the changes.
Except at night when ,apparently, the Skip appears on deck in grumpy fashion because she wakes when any of the sounds or motion change, so, if someone is screaming off
in the wrong direction and not trimming up , she seems to sleep walk to to the cockpit to whinge. All taken good naturedly by this great crew.
Apart from the whinging Skip (only sometimes) and the cussing when someone is attacked by the" suicide cupboard "(tall cupboard at the end of the galley which
does not have good fiddles, when we are on this tack, the boat empties this locker on top of anyone foolish enough to look for a teatowel!), we are amazingly clear of background noise,
it is so pure that each sound has meaning and function and is clearly placed in ones consciousness. It is almost like a silence, like space in sound and interference, would we ever experience this on land or would we notice?
Hey I don't know!
we think we should be 9 hrs now after UTC but we are going to change our clocks in Marquesas
There is a boat south of us which shall remain nameless not to worry relatives (no boat that I have mentioned) which is having lots of power problems, NO engine no generator.
WE are on standby to assist if required, so everything can change in a moment at sea. I Am not sure we have enough fuel to go motoring around the ocean but we will
do anything we can to help if they need of course as the law of the sea requires.
less than 800 miles to go...weird that
xxx