agility @ sea

Jer:

I read Tim’s blog entry and he did a great job summing up yesterday’s excitement, but I have a few details to add.
First off, dinner also semi-dumped (not only morning coffee), but Tim saved the majority of the plate’s contents with only minor spillage and transferred the food to bowls. I had a minor meltdown. I have this idea in my head (I’m sure I read this somewhere) that it is important to have normal nutritious and pleasant meals while on passage. Well, screw that. I had no business making dinner last night. It was unpleasant to prepare, to eat, to clean up, and it wasn’t very good either. Next time we are dealing with such rough weather ham, cheese and crackers will suffice. Along with some peaches directly out of the can 🙂 Second, I called Tim into the starboard head to help me find the rattling he referred to in his entry. I’m sure we were not in there for more than 2 minutes and Tim left because it was hot, rough, and he was feeling gross. We turn around and suddenly there is a significant amount of salt water pouring into the starboard berth through the galley underneath the refrigerators. Specifically around the fire extinguisher that Tim pulled out, handed me, and said “put this somewhere safe.” Recall that we are jerking around like mad, everything is wet and slippery and I’m running around cradling a decent sized fire extinguisher wondering where the hell someplace safe is while also grabbing towels from every spot on the boat where they are hanging or stowed. I visualized slipping and having that extinguisher start to spray all over the place while Tim is taking things apart trying to discover where the water is coming from. We were particularly concerned because it was originating near all of our electronic instruments. Turned out to be from a big splash out of the steering column so not a huge ongoing concern.
This is our third sailboat and I’ve never experienced one quite so “wet” with salt water. We can’t keep our bilge alarms on or we’d be living with an ongoing high pitched beeping 24-7 and the pumps don’t work worth crap. Tim cleans the bilges out nearly daily. The starboard engine room is better after some work Sven did, but there is still so much residual salt in there – not good for the engine. Also, we’re sure that the auto pilot broke due to its wet environment. In the past, we’ve been able to store things in the bilges and it is the exception, not the rule, for them to be wet. Argh. Fortunately, we will have two months of quiet island time after Beserra’s visit and before the kids arrive. I told Tim we are having FUN while the Beserras are out (we need it) and we will have plenty of time to work through things afterwards. Awloplast will already be sending someone out to do the cargo ship crash repair so we can work on a few other items as well.
Finally, that island yesterday freaked me out.
I’m up now (1:30 a.m.), things are a lot more calm, we’re motoring until the wind picks up and I’m taking advantage of the engines running by washing all of the towels we used last night. No tea tonight, instant coffee (I have not made peace with the aero-press, at least not in the dark and when it’s bumpy), and I’m going to clean. I got a decent amount of sleep in and I’d like to stay up and allow Tim to get several hours in if possible. I can’t stand our salt slicked floors, seats, walls, etc., another moment.
Tomorrow is a brand new day.