Can it get any hotter? I just came off the oars, where I had to have a tissue handy to mop the beads of perspiration that kept rolling off my brow and tickling my nose! It is s-w-e-l-t-e-r-i-n-g out here with little cloud cover and only 0-2 knots of breeze.
For the entirety of my past watch, our new troupe of escort fish were swimming along side. We are becoming a traveling circus! Our new recruits are three or four medium sized Yellow Fin tuna (1-2ft) and three Gran-Daddies of 4-5ft. Unfortunately since the addition of the new cast we have not seen our little family of black and white stripy fish and fear that they may have become a stripy snack. Mick and I simply can’t get over having the Yellow Fins just pootling along, sometimes a foot from the side of the boat, other times a foot or so beyond the oar, 1-2ft below the surface. I can almost tell each fish apart now, by its size, expression and demarcations, having watched this one or that one cruising for an hour or more right by me. They are all amazingly unafraid. Perhaps they’ve figured out that we’re only eating freeze-dried!
Last night as the sun was setting, the breeze died altogether and the water was a glassy mirror, crystal clear for as deep as the naked eye can see. Mick was up and off the oars captivated by the big Yellows traversing under the hull. Together we peered over one side of the boat, then the other as they traversed back and forth. I managed to capture them on film and Mick had a go today with the video camera. Throughout the day, other larger fish (some 5-6ft long) have hurled themselves out of the water, hunting or being hunted we don’t know. There may not be much meteorological activity, but otherwise 19.06 deg N, 36.31 deg W is very much alive!
Much though I love fish, especially Yellow Fin sushi, I have strangely no desire to fish for one of the Yellow Fins. Both Mick and I enjoy the company! So far, Mick has only named one of them, ‘Piano’ (there is something degenerative about rowing an ocean that allows you to chuckle at cheesy anecdotes and bad jokes!). Is it the self-regenerating organic garden on the bottom of our hull, that attracts these guys? Or like the cycling peloton, does ‘Dream Maker’s slip stream make for a cushy ride? Perhaps the shade of our boats bum offers the perfect safe house? I am fascinated to know. Tim (Keogh)?
I was so excited today by my new creations, The ‘Super Splints’ that I wanted to whoop for joy! Could pain free-dom be imminent, I wondered as I velcro’d on the right wrist support and pulled my left through the ankle support sock-with splint inside. Standing there with two mechanical arms, I realized that I was about to get a very odd tan! Sam splint is a roll of malleable foam covered aluminum sheet and this has proved the best cushioning material between my hand and the oar, so far. My first idea was to fashion a hook out of it which my fingers would wrap around and which I could just pull with the forearm. However, my fingers have been recovering fast and this doesn’t seem to be necessary. Instead I have changed the shape of how I handle the oar, in order to ease pressure on the finger joints. My palms now wrap around the oars in a looser ’s’ shape, where the shape is created by a metal back-bone that I have bent and taped to the underside of the splint. The result is obvious- our daily mileages are up and the word ‘agony’ has gone from my post-slumber vocabulary (no doubt the Ruta 30c may have helped too). The ‘Super Splints’ are still work in progress, so any suggestions you might have are welcome. Already I have had to make a few modifications – round off the corners and tape the edges. When I reached for a drink I was paper-cutting myself and beginning to feel like Edward Scissor-Hands!
‘The race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself.’ (Baz Lurhman again). Now that Mick’s family are booked to arrive in Antigua on March 5th, Mick and I are all about the 50nm day! I too, would like to catch up with all my friends before the end of the St.Maarten Heineken sailing regatta (4-8th March) in St. Maarten (two islands up), so we’re both feeling pretty motived. The I-pods came out during oar-time for the first time yesterday and now the time is going ‘zip!’ Nearly half-way now…
Mood colour of the day- floro yellow, seas 0ft.
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19.30 GMT
Barometer 1015
Wind SE 0-2kts
