Flat on the Back & Back on the Flat
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 30 May 2011 04:37
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Monday 30th May 2011 0755 Local Time 0255
UTC
14:51.312S 062:53.342E
We have a had a boisterous though fast passage. It
has been quite gruelling at times. I have done almost all the cooking from meals
Trish pre made and have hardly had any proper sleep in the past three days.
The problem is not the lack of sleep but the lack of quality (lying flat) lying
down time to rest my back. To give you an idea on how my back is: I cannot lift
anything heavy, I cannot run or jump, I cannot twist, I cannot bend down without
keeping my back straight and bending my knees. When it gets overworked and
tired I sort of wobble from the middle being unable to stabilise myself because
my core is weakened. When I lie down for a short time and then get up I can
barely stand and need to support myself with a bulkhead or whatever is
available for the first couple of minutes. However after lying down for say the
night in a flat bed I feel strong when I get up. That however has not been
possible on this passage.
I was well aware that I needed to start more
exercises to rebuild my core and back strength, with all the sailing though
it was hard to get the chance. However when I was in the anchorage in Chagos and
visiting Doctor Sue she also suggested I did some exercises and proceeded to lay
me out on the deck. First I lay face down and was raising my head and shoulders
to build lower back strength. Then she asked me to turn over and lay flat down,
not easy when you have stainless steel back bolts almost in direct contact
with the teak deck!
"Relax" she said, pressing into my groin area.
"Now" she said, "imagine you have a vagina". WHAT! Imagine what? In shock, I
told myself I can't imagine that, while at the same time making a mental
note to come back to her for "Physological Coaching" or "Trauma Councelling" or
whatever it is they give people who trip over a kerb nowadays. And anyway there
is no way I could be put in charge of one of these I told her I would simply be
wreckless and irresponsible ......... I just doubled up on the back
exercises.
We have now covered Eight hundred miles since we
left Salomon Islands in the Chagos. The rhumb line on this passage is 1,250
miles almost half the rhumb line Atlantic distance between the Canary
Islands and Antigua!
To try to make Trish feel there is not long to go I
told her yesterday "never mind" I said comfortingly, "when you wake up tomorrow
the day after there will be only one more day to go". She saw through it right
away. "What you mean we are almost half way.............?"
The forecast was for things to ease yesterday
afternoon through to midnight when we could expect the wind to ease by five
knots and back twenty degrees. As the day and evening progressed any easing was
very slight and of course the thing giving us most problems, the sea state lags
behind the wind speeds in settling.
I gradually added a little sail then shortened
again for the ever present squalls, then put out a little more again, but
eventually settled for a very conservative plan and tried to get some rest
through the night. At times we were only doing seven knots but the rest was
appreciated. At first light I put away the jib and shook out our big genny and
set it with one reef in it. Then all of the main was brought out to play,
flattened along the boom which was eased out in phases all the way to the
spereaders as the wind continued to back and ease. For most of the night we were
sailing flat, the first time in many months, and at first light it was a thrill
to be so far off the wind again and charging along with some data on the speedo
occasionally starting with a "1" again. As the wind and swell was now well
behind our beam it was flat sailing though "it's been a long time since I rock
and rolled..."
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