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| Life at an angle. |
Hi All-
My apologies for not having kept up with my posts but I have been sick. Flat on my back for three days kind of sick. I think after reading about Martin being so seasick for so long, day-in and day-out, it finally got to me and I have had empathy sickness... or something of the sort.
Early this morning I got a text from Martin saying, "See you on Sunday!" I shot out of bed! What? Sunday! I had already booked Lily and I to get into Seattle on Monday thinking that he wouldn't arrive until Tuesday. So, I spent all morning rebooking flights and accommodations. Then I got another text later in the day with him saying, "Well, maybe Monday morning." I give up! Looks like Lily and I are going to have a long enjoyable stay in Seattle because I am not changing tickets again.
Later this evening I got another text from Martin saying, "Take a screenshot of the race right now! It is crazy out here! The weather conditions are insane!" So I did.
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| Screenshot of the Swells. |
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| Screenshot of the Wind and Air Pressure. |
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| Screenshot of the Temperature. |
It's reported on the Clipperroundtheworld.com site that speeds are in the "high teens" with the surfs in the 20 knot ranges. I DID NOT need to know this! This is one heck of a race!
I am just ready to get Martin home.
Martin's latest text to me was simply this, "I'm cold."
If you haven't read his latest post on the crew diary, here it is:
"The Beach Boys’ hit songs
about surfing made it the goal of every guy in California to ride a wave. Here
on Visit Seattle, it's everyone's goal to get our boat to be our 70-foot
surfboard so we can surf down these big Pacific rolling waves. By surfing, we
can get the boat to plane down the swell and just about double our speed. The
longer we can "ride it out" the longer we can sustain the higher
speed.
However, surfing is not
without its risks. The boat constantly wants to broach or get sideways to the
wave, and it takes a strong and attentive helmsman to keep the boat headed in the
right direction. The other risk is that our mainsail can potentially jibe and
violently swing across the wind causing all sorts of havoc.
On my sailboat Amara, we
have both power steering and an autopilot. Here on Visit Seattle, it is manual
steering all the way. I was on the helm last night for one hour and my left
shoulder is still sore this morning from the workout. Pekka, a previous race
crew member from Finland, had to heartbreakingly drop out of this Pacific
crossing due to a shoulder overuse injury, which I'm sure came from his time at
the helm.
Time to get back to our
surfing safari.
Martin"
