Whine and Roses

We are under way to Santa Marta in Columbia and have been at sea for 3 days. The weather is ghastly and the seas are enormous.

For the first time this morning I wondered to myself "What on earth am I doing here!" In fact the language was a little more graphic but, however impolitely it was expressed, the emotion  came from deep within my pampered soul.

The reason for this unladylike sentiment was the 6am wake up call to stand my watch. This may not sound too onerous and I am sure that some eyeballs are rolling; but you had to be there to appreciate my reluctance to rise at what may seem to be a reasonable hour.

Al and I had gone to bed only a few hours earlier leaving Chris and Helen on watch. We have slept in our clothes which are damp from the earlier evening dew...the boat heels and rocks and rolls, as it has done for the past 3 days so sleep is difficult unless you tuck yourself into some tight corner.

To make matters worse and to eliminate any remaining chances of a little much needed rest, pots and pans, cutlery, empty gin bottles, anything that isn't tied down or  wedged in, bangs and crashes mercilessly no matter how determinedly I attempt to track  down the culprits  in order to stop the racket.

The good days outnumber the bad

As I get out of bed , I trip over the  laundry bag. It has grown too big to fit in its customary slot. Most of the laundry in the bag is damp and mouldy and need I add slightly rank?

On this point, and mainly for the information of those of you who may be thinking that my housekeeping standards are not up to scratch; the washing machine on board can't face the task of handling the job required of it in a rough sea. In addition, the rudeness of the Bonaire immigration lady put paid to having it done there as had been planned. This is just a temporary aberration so no need to judge!

I shrug on my life jacket and harness..it cuts into my collar bone...and heave myself upstairs to face a pitch black morning with the lights of fishing boats and tankers cluttering the horizon.

The tankers are no problem..they have AIS which tells us where they are headed and with a little luck, we can work out if we are on a collision course and get out of the way if necessary. The task of avoiding being run over by a massive ship has the advantage of  keeping you from falling asleep on watch!

The fishing boats are however  a different kettle ....shocking pun... only one of the boats had a light and the rest of the fleet showed on the radar but were invisible to the cursing watch woman on Legend IV.

We changed course to avoid them but the palaver of gybing a boat with a downward rig  in the dark when you have just woken up beats anything that I have ever faced in suburbia.

Things got better as the sun came up and it wasn't long before I was back to counting my blessings. And then when Al announced that "with all this rocking and rolling, it  looks like you have lost weight" ,  I knew that none of the discomfort had been in vain.

Anyone who has ever asked me for a favour or a loan knows that this is a sure fire way to guarantee a positive response. So all is forgiven, Legend IV.

Colour co-ordinated G and T