I am now solidly into the trades, though only about 40 miles off the coast of Sumatra and sailing due west. Fluffy white clouds rim the horizon, great blue 2 meter seas sparkle under the sun and cresting small white caps approach from th SE. It could not be a prettier day, or a better day for sailing west. By noon, we had sailed a total of 142 miles over the last 24 hours.
Conversations is still sailing on a broad port reach with the main to starboard, the genoa full and poled out to port and the solent staysail filling the hole between the main and the genoa. This is the perfect three sail combination for this boat. More stable than a spinnaker, it presents a large sail area that is stable, quiet and fast. Lovely, just lovely. Sliding along at between 7 and 8 knots.
By the end of the day yesterday I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. At sunset, the lack of sleep from first night out dodging fishing trawlers, plus 10 days of hell getting the boat ready had arrived in my lap. Fortunately the trawler traffic had diminished, so as the sun went down, I set the radar alarm and laid down in the cockpit and fell instantly asleep. About 25 minutes later I was instantly awake. The radar alarm was sounding and the boat was way off course. I could see nothing on the horizon to be as excited about as the radar, so I went below reset it, corrected the course and re-self steering and flopped down in the cockpit again. I feel instantly asleep. About 25 minutes later, I was instantly awake. The boat was off course and the radar alarm was sounding again. I got up....... And so it went all night till dawn, waking up once or twice an hour. I imagine its like it is to have a new baby home from the hospital. But here at the equator the nights are 12 hours long, so by morning my 20 or so naps had me feeling just great.
So, its day two and I can tell that I am adjusting to being at sea. The motion and the lack of solid sleep has taken about 48 hours to adjust to and my nervous tension for being solo is gone. My energy is going up and I even did some step ups, pushups and sit-ups to combat the bulge. Who knows, tomorrow I might even do some .....work work! (But I secretly hope not.)
My thought for the day is about capacity, about physical energy. All day yesterday, and last night, my body was just aching with fatigue. I didn`t have the energy to do anything that didn`t absolutely have to be done. I didn`t clean. I didn`t try to fix anything on the boat. I was barely able to cook dinner. I was so tired, I didn`t even get any pleasure from eating my KRAFT dinner with wieners! Now, that is bad! When I am taped out physically, nothing is fun, everything is a chore, and I start to beat myself up for not doing the stuff I `should`be doing. Last night I started in on myself about not being a good solo sailor and staying alert all night watching, as a sailor had recently boasted he does. But, you know, life is not that simple, and I am not that strong. Instead, I took the precautions I could, did the best I could to sleep around the alarms and bad helmsmanship of my self steering, and just gave up on doing what I thought I `should` do. I surrendered to my body and got as much sleep as I could and gave up on the everything else. Today I feel great and I am doing, in modesty, some great things (well some reasonable things). If things do get tough out here, I`ll be more prepared now that I am rested. Sometimes we need not be heroes: We just need to be good to ourselves. The rest will look after itself.
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