Up the down escalator!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 18 Jul 2011 14:30
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Monday 18 July 1545 Local 1345
UTC
34:14.128S 023:47.186E
Life on the high seas, like life ashore is full of
ups and downs. After yesterdays fantastic sailing conditions we banged into
headwinds of upto thirty knots in the early morning and steady 20 - 25 knots
head winds all day, only now easing to 15 knots from dead ahead. So we have made
only 53 miles good today in about 12 hours! This must be one of our slowest ever
days!
We have been hemmed inside the Agulhas Current
which is streaming west into and under the wind on the one side and the
hard rocky shore of southern Africa on the other side. In between we suffer
contrary current, which though providing additional drag, at least is with
the wind. Its like being forced to take the ddown escalator to go up. The wind
forecast was just under 15 knots and the plan was to head along inside it and
the current for the morning before shaking it off. Its additional strength and
our consequent slow progress however have meant spending the whole day in lumpy
conditions.
Hey ho! It is winter and nobody said it
would be easy ........... except me, to Trish when we set off the other
day.
As the wind eased slightly just now there was a
corresponding uplift in my moral, hoping the good hope to see The Cape in
daylight tomorrow. Out on deck I go shaking out more canvas pointing a little
higher. It is easy to be motivated when you are making progress, when things are
going well, however what really counts is how well you can motivate yourself
when things are not going well. When the challenge is great and the odds are
stacked against you. Those times when one thing after another seem to be going
wrong. When the only reward for your efforts is not falling further back or
limiting the slippage in progress. That is the real test of moral and character.
That's when the lightweights take to bed, bury
their heads in the sand and hide from confronting the task at
hand.
In a similar vein I was thinking about these single
handed trans ocean or round the world racing sailors. The Vende, the Route du
Rhum, Velux Ocean etc etc. I think these races could be won or lost at
night. You see there is a tendency to reef down at night, be a bit more
cautious, leave any changes or jobs till the morning. That would be half
the race when you would not be at optimum performance. If you could learn to
master your performance at night and sleep in the day then would that not be an
advantage, or is this what the winners already do?
Anyway enough of all this philosophy I have to go
for a snooze ................ ????????
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