So we will try again. We sailed in a nice straight line to Canaries. We took shifts on watch, Four hours on, Eight hours off. There were waves and clouds and dolphins and even sea turtles. I didn't get to see the sea turtles, John did:) I did get to see a big pod of dolphins - maybe more than 50. They were quite close to the boat, but only a few, maybe eight to ten of them came over to look at the boat. I thought I was going to get some great pictures if they all came over.
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| The sunsets just keep on being beautiful |
On Saturday night I was quite ill. By around eight, I was throwing up (of course, just when my watch is supposed to begin). I couldn't even keep water down and I was beginning to get very concerned about dehydration. I made a delicious salmon with red peppers and “plums” (it is a little orange fruit that looks like an apricot - starts with an “n” and is from Portugal…), and rice. I tried to eat a little of the rice, but threw it up.
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| Not feeling so well |
Maria biscuits and water, maria biscuits, Gravol water, throw up, water, drink water. My head was spinning, and I was having trouble standing. Why did I come here? Why do I think I have any place on a sailboat. I get seasick. I am so seasick. I never want to sail again. If Greg wants to keep sailing he can find a new partner. And I don't mean just for sailing. I am never going on a boat again. I can’t race if I am like this. What was I thinking. I am selling Cerulean. I am done with sailing. Check the AIS, no boats around, good. check the course, all ok, heading is good.
I swallow a ginger Gravol and almost immediately go outside to the back of the boat to vomit. I want to throw myself into the sea. My whole life is a mess. I don't think I want to live anymore. I think I will stay inside and throw up in the head or sink instead of going outside. I’m not sure it is safe for me to be out there anymore. Drink. Nibble a biscuit. Right, check that the boat is on the right course. Adjust one degree. I am flying home from Canary Islands.
At 11:30 John came up for the midnight watch. He looked at me curled in the corner of the settee. “Go to bed he said”, I’ll do the midnight log. I nodded and stumbled down the stairs to my cool dark cave. I swallowed a regular, put-you-to-sleep Gravol. I pulled my near-corpse-like body into my thinsulate cocoon and lay entombed like a mummy.
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| Full Sails today |
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| I really have to admit - the weather has been awesome |
When I awoke, I could tell that I was feeling a bit better. I was not out of the woods, hmmm, maybe “not out of the ocean yet”, but I could feel it abating just slightly. I was still shaky as I pulled on my clothes and dragged myself up the stairs. Jon asked how I was and I sat in the corner of the settee and tilted my hand from side to side in an iffy kind of way. I managed through my watch and crawled back into bed. By late afternoon, I was feeling a lot better. I even managed to make a spaghetti dinner that night on my eight-o-clock watch, and even eat some of it.
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| View from the Cockpit |
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| Definitely feeling much better! |
By Monday I was feeling great. I read a book and did puzzles. I don’t think I have ever been able to do that on a boat and not feel sick. I believe that what I had on Saturday night was more than just seasickness. I will admit to any amount of seasickness, but coming fairly suddenly like that, when I wasn’t feeling sick for a while day on the water before, and other days before that. And then to be suddenly so very, very sick. Maybe… maybe it was just a sudden bout of really bad seasickness on relatively reasonable ocean water. We will never know. But I am so glad, so very glad that I felt better long before we docked. On Tuesday I was a ball of energy and could hardly sleep. I finished one of my novels and I am half way through the other one. I have finished reading one and a half audio books too. There doesn't seem to be a sailors book swap shelf here - I am going to have to find one. All the books they sell here are (of course) in Spanish and although I can stumble through enough sentences to make myself understood, I don’t think I could handle a novel.
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| Cockpit at sunset |
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| I'm sorry - there's really only so much you can take a photo of out here... |
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| Land Ho! Gran Canaria! |
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