It was the morning of the thirtyfirst day when the sun finally broke through, a number of clustered clouds still refusing to depart. My brother had woken me for my nightly watch and stayed with me for an hour to share some cookies he'd dug up, but for my morning watch he let me sleep until I woke by myself an hour late. A slight breeze came from the south and we set the sails accordingly. The easterly current that had been pushing us for the past two weeks was now giving way for a more northerly slowing our progress eastwards, but the stable wind almost made up for it.
With the sun out, the deck was repopulated soon. I enjoyed dozing off on the foreship feeling the warmth of the sunlight wrap around me.The cushions were out for drying again and before long would be back in their original places. But even with the weather improving that much, with every mile we came closer our destination seemed to increase its attraction. The goal was set and coming closer, the journey turned almost into nothing more but a wait with no new excitement and a repeated daily pattern.
Later, a thickening cover of clouds hid the afternoon sun. The wind had calmed to below five knots and we were hardly able to keep our pace. Another change in weather stood in the air once again. Just before nightfall, we saw what looked like a solid wall of dark grey clouds blocking our way and we drove right into it as with all the open space, there still seemed no way around it. We feared for strong winds and reefed the mizzen sail and took the Genoa down. I had just started my watch and stood waiting at what was to come. My guts told me it wouldn't be that bad.
The cold wind came before the rain. In average 10 to 15 knots it was even a little less than I had expected, but none of us did mind as we had it coming right on our nose. We were slowed down to below three knots and almost instantly my brother was drawing devils on the wall. What if that would be with us for the remainder of the way? The winds soon decreased and the rain turned into a light, rather annyoing drizzle, not even enough and much too cold to take a freshwater shower. Still, the wind coming right from the front way slowing us considerably.
With the excitement over, the crew left me to my watch and went below to watch a movie. I was playing with the sails and course, but with time and a little turn of the wind we were back at making four knots after all. The night was pitch black as the moon would take another hour to rise and some more time to work its way above the thick clouds covering the horizon.
Experiencing a night that dark is actually rare in today's world. Usually, there's always so many sources of light, one doesn't even realize you can still see so much. Whether it's the moon, some stars or even the lights of civilization glowing from afar or blinking right at you, there's hardly an area to escape them. In a pitch black night, there's no moon, no stars, all hidden behind a thick dark cover of clouds, and one's far off any stronghold of the civilized world. An then there is just nothing. You can look, but you cannot see, not even your palm before your eyes. I've had experienced only few such nights before and they can be quite scary as I found out in the woods of southern Sweden years ago. Out on the open water, it is merely disturbing. You have to remind yourself that there hardly anything around you could collide with and if there was, it would be lit and another ship, or a whale you wouldn't have seen even if there was some light. Out here it made no difference, but it was hard to stay with that conviction. Being temporarily blind will in fact disturb any man.
With the sun out, the deck was repopulated soon. I enjoyed dozing off on the foreship feeling the warmth of the sunlight wrap around me.The cushions were out for drying again and before long would be back in their original places. But even with the weather improving that much, with every mile we came closer our destination seemed to increase its attraction. The goal was set and coming closer, the journey turned almost into nothing more but a wait with no new excitement and a repeated daily pattern.
Later, a thickening cover of clouds hid the afternoon sun. The wind had calmed to below five knots and we were hardly able to keep our pace. Another change in weather stood in the air once again. Just before nightfall, we saw what looked like a solid wall of dark grey clouds blocking our way and we drove right into it as with all the open space, there still seemed no way around it. We feared for strong winds and reefed the mizzen sail and took the Genoa down. I had just started my watch and stood waiting at what was to come. My guts told me it wouldn't be that bad.
The cold wind came before the rain. In average 10 to 15 knots it was even a little less than I had expected, but none of us did mind as we had it coming right on our nose. We were slowed down to below three knots and almost instantly my brother was drawing devils on the wall. What if that would be with us for the remainder of the way? The winds soon decreased and the rain turned into a light, rather annyoing drizzle, not even enough and much too cold to take a freshwater shower. Still, the wind coming right from the front way slowing us considerably.
With the excitement over, the crew left me to my watch and went below to watch a movie. I was playing with the sails and course, but with time and a little turn of the wind we were back at making four knots after all. The night was pitch black as the moon would take another hour to rise and some more time to work its way above the thick clouds covering the horizon.
Experiencing a night that dark is actually rare in today's world. Usually, there's always so many sources of light, one doesn't even realize you can still see so much. Whether it's the moon, some stars or even the lights of civilization glowing from afar or blinking right at you, there's hardly an area to escape them. In a pitch black night, there's no moon, no stars, all hidden behind a thick dark cover of clouds, and one's far off any stronghold of the civilized world. An then there is just nothing. You can look, but you cannot see, not even your palm before your eyes. I've had experienced only few such nights before and they can be quite scary as I found out in the woods of southern Sweden years ago. Out on the open water, it is merely disturbing. You have to remind yourself that there hardly anything around you could collide with and if there was, it would be lit and another ship, or a whale you wouldn't have seen even if there was some light. Out here it made no difference, but it was hard to stay with that conviction. Being temporarily blind will in fact disturb any man.
At the end of my watch the movie was only half way through. I had no intention of staying out in the drizzle by myself and went to get my replacement, the captain. It seemed, he felt about the same and liked the movie better and showed himself no intention to start his watch. Only for the sake of everyone else aboard I gave in without another word and went back up. I sat in the wheelhouse very much dissatisfied with the situation and read. I didn't care for watching the wind and didn't think I needed to, if even the captain seemed to be careless of it.
He came up an hour later announcing we'd now do three hour watches. I didn't care, I was still holding back a confrontation, but had started to put an increasing distance between that man and me. I started disliking the captain for all that I wasn't able to confront him with. Worst of all, the few times I had probed him had about proven to me it would have made no difference. I was counting my days and the slowdown had just added half a day. I wasn't liking it. I went to bed after watching a movie myself. The captain was sleeping through his watch on deck, wrapped in the yellow plastic rain gear.
I wouldn't get up until the next morning. Shortly after midnight, the captain tried to wake my brother, mistaking me for him and, while whispering his name, he was shaking my leg. I showed not a sign of reaction, but felt, how even these insignificant situations started to add up to me disliking the captain. I was pushing my limits further and could not see any way out of the situation without being destructive. And that, I didn't want to be at all.
captains log:
0730 unreef Mizzen, strong current north!
unfurl Genoa 1/2
wind SWS 5-8kn, unfurl Genoa all
1200 N4°47 E89°42
no wind, off Genoa
no wind whatsoever, down to 4kn speed
1645 up Genoa, S 8kn
1830 squall, reef M, down Genoa
rain till 2300
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