Day 2 – Monday 10 February.

By Cathleen Hughes.

In the morning of Day 2 we discovered Rory and Renier still sitting in the cockpit after a rough first night on the open sea. We later discovered that they simply did not want to go into their cabins as the thought of feeling any worse than they already did was just terrifying. The day was slow as the majority of the crew members slept all day except for appearing diligently for their watches. The saloon became hot and humid because all the windows were closed due to the waves crashing over the boat. It may have been uncomfortable but to most it was a safe haven away from the sight of rolling waves and the salty spray. Peter, Chris and Cathleen were leading the pack with no signs of sea sickness and the rest of the crew made it known that they were rather jealous.

Virgil discovered a couple leaks in the fore peak which he began trying to fix with methods such as black bags and duct tape so he could get to sleep without the constant dripping on his stomache.

In the first 24 hours we managed to do 124NM. The crew decided that sailing safe and comfortably was the best way to go especially since we were no longer in a race and the crew wasn’t in the best condition. We reminisced about the sail to Rio in an attempt to work out how long the sea sickness would last and to compare the rough seas to the storm at the beginning of the race. It also provided a chance for story swopping about sailing and other lifestyles as a form of bonding amongst the new and previous crew members.

For those that were interested, dinner was a simple meal of Provita and spreads because preparing food in the galley was sickening and so was the washing up of dishes that followed. We ate lots of fruit throughout the day especially since the oranges were starting to go off.

The night watches were relatively uneventful except for an emergency call over the VHF Radio that informed all listeners that a man overboard procedure was being conducted after someone had fallen over board one of the large ships. We weren’t entirely sure of what happened as the message was mostly in Portuguese but it was a sobering reminder that things can go wrong so quickly and being so far from land, it can be fatal.
The crew is holding thumbs that they will begin to find their sea legs soon so we can extract the most out of the trip home.