February 24, 2018 - Sailing to Kosrae

February 24, 2018

It is 12:00 am and I have just come onto my first middle of the night 4-hour shift. This is the time I dislike the most. It is dark outside and in to save electricity except for a small red light. The waves seem rough, hitting and slamming into the bottom of the boat as it twists and turns surfing down the waves. Sometimes my stomach gets queasy from the movement, but I’ve never gotten sick; it is just a passing, momentary feeling.  I don’t know why the darkness scares me, you’d think it would be better since I cannot see what seems like huge waves looming over the back of the boat as it is in the trough. Mostly, the waves have been mild on this trip, considering the first leg from Majuro to Jaliut.

I sit and read a book, setting my alarm for every 20 minutes to remind me to get up and go outside to have a look about. The alarm is also to check the plotter, but that is constant for me as I check the windspeed constantly. Sometimes it is over 8 knots and I get scared, but then it can go down to 3-4 knots. I like the slower speeds better as there is less crashing of the waves into the bottom of the boat and the twisting and turning, surfing is much less, but then it takes ever so much longer to get anywhere. Watching the minutes go buy and counting down until Pete wakes up for his 4 am shift. Sometimes it feels endless, I’d like to be working on the computer, but with the turbulent water, I cannot focus and type, so it’s reading a book or playing games on the Kindle.

Pete wakes up early and we have a few minutes briefing, still I stay until 4 to make certain I complete my shift. Now it’s off to bed and I read for a bit before sleep comes.

 Pete stays up a lot sometimes during the day and he notices a fish is on and reels in a small flying fish which I cooked up as soon as he filleted it and my thoughts were, you can’t get fresher fish than this. It was delicious, and I ate my half right away. When Pete decides he’s finished his tasting, I quickly chow down on his leftovers. We do have plenty of food on board including still what I cooked up before we left, but the fresh fish is areal treat and the other food is left behind for another meal.

We continue to do our shifts throughout the day and sometimes the weather is rough, but it is still much smoother than I’d thought. So time passes with shifts, reading and sleeping and another day at sea ends. 

The first catch - Pete's 'big' flying fish