18:18.5S 175:49.7E Tough tough tough!
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sat 18 Apr 2015 09:27
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What a day! This is hard sailing! Maybe it was so
long ago we did an ocean crossing or it is worse than normal.
You judge that read our diary. Maybe you recognise
the same complaints every time, I don't know.
I'm sitting in the cockpit with not one pillow, the
boat is soaked in salt water. The wind has been between 25 knots gusting up to
35, all day.
So we are sailing fast, that's good, 7-8
knots.
The bad news is that we have 3 meter waves rolling
in from the side. 3 meter significant means that now and then there is a 4 meter
wave (like one that came right now).
So what is a 4 meter wave like? Imagine an american
freight train coming sideways at you, like an enormous liquid wall, Salsa gets
lifted on top of that, sideways and up.This means that she looses her grip and
when we slide down on the other side the boat turns 45 degrees AGAINST the
wind, meaning that suddenly the sails go bananas, the Autopilot who's inventor
should be granted a Nobel Prize then works like mad to get her back into course,
but of course the BIG wave had a little brother but I will not bore you with
that... That is the good news!
The bad news is when a liquid freighttrain decides
to brake ONTO Salsa, then we get smacked with tons and tons of water and we
are suddenly half a submarine, with one ton of water trying to get off the
boat.
Well this means we do not do anything more than
holding on and when I prepare the food it takes an hour even though everything
is prepared (only to cook the spagetthi!). You cant let go of anything and
especially not yourselfe. I noticed today that I was so spread legged that one
foot was in the aft cabin and one in the forward toilet (just kidding). That
must be the hard part when you have a small boat, where do you spread your legs?
You feel like a juggler, let go one plate catch the other, grab the oven before
you fall into the sink.
Being a submarine means no open hatches, and that
is hot when you have 25 degrees outside. So not are you only spread legged, you
sweat!
Well we are not alone on this crazy ocean, we are
three boats heading for Aneityum/ Vanuatu and one of them ChezNouis is withing
visible range. We can chat and compare notes along the way.
And tomorrow the waves will drop by 3 decimeters!
Isnt that worth celebrating!
Yesterday Andreas looked at me like "let's talk
mens talk"
he lowered his voice and asked "I can see why you
wanted to get married with mom, but what made her wanting
you?"
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