Day 5
I don't have many pictures again, so I'm going to scatter sunrises through this post. Oh look, a sunrise.
Sunrise
There's a strong current in between Tonga and the Cook Islands. Most people probably don't notice or care about it because it's running with the trade winds. However, when you're becalmed and being dragged in the wrong direction at 3 knots, you certainly notice it.
I'm beginning to wonder if we should have invested in an ssb radio instead of a satellite phone so we could get the weather every day. Knowing that there's not going to be any wind probably won't change the fact that there's no wind, but it's nice knowing what to expect. Plus we have to time our arrival so we don't get into a new country on a weekend - sometimes it's worth motoring for a while. The fabulous Dale does send weather to our sat phone every few days, but it's not the same as a daily radio forecast.
We've done so many short passages lately that after five days it feels like we're nearly there. We are not. We're probably about halfway, so it could be worse. I was only sick for the first day instead of the first week this time, which is probably why it feels like we're taking so long. I usually spend the first five days in a half-asleep drugged-up haze. I'm bored out of my mind and annoyed that I can't sleep for 12 hours a day unless I'm sick, but this is definitely better.
We left with about 30 knots on the nose and the wind didn't drop off for a few days. Which is even more annoying than having hardly any wind. We had our tiny number 3 jib up on our baby stay with the main double-reefed (small sails, for anybody who doesn't speak sailing jibberish). We made very slow progress as we bashed into the huge waves. They were erratic and splashy for a few days, then turned into a massive swell. Which makes life hell because you have to stand up in the cockpit and wait until the boat reaches the top of the arc to be able to check the horizon. This results in a face full of salt water, every time. Normally I just kneel in my seat and peer over the dodger. Where it's safe.
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Day 7
So I'm an idiot. I realise this subject has been brushed upon before, after I sliced my feet up on oyster shells in the Whitsundays. But I feel I need to bring it up again. Yesterday we decided that cooking was too hard, so Garth was making 2 minute noodles for lunch. He put both noodles and boiling water into a bowl and passed it up to me in the cockpit. He mentioned that it was hot, but I was reading my book and not paying much attention. He always passes me things to hold. So I reached behind me and grabbed the bowl with my arm twisted backwards, palm up. It was heavy. Then the boat lurched, and before I could turn around to steady it with both hands, there was boiling water pouring down my arm.
Garth had just poured it out of the kettle, so it hadn't had a chance to cool down at all. I managed to get almost all of it down my arm via my wrist, because I had been reaching up when I grabbed it. If I'd been sitting up I probably would have dropped it straight onto the ground, avoiding serious injury. But not me.
There was a lot of screaming and pain. Then Garth stuck my arm in a bucket of seawater for 20 minutes while he consulted our medical book. Unfortunately the seawater here is lukewarm, so I doubt it helped as much as it could have. I should probably just be grateful that I spilled it into the cockpit instead of down the stairs onto Garth. He's amazing at medical stuff, always keeping calm and calming me down too. But he's a typical boy when he's injured, whinging and whining like a baby and being an absolute nightmare. And I'm absolutely useless with serious first aid, always getting dizzy and needing to lie down. So if he'd been hurt as well we would have been screwed.
He pumped me with drugs, smothered me in burn cream from our serious first aid kit, then wrapped me up in glad wrap and bandages. So now I'm pretty useless. You definitely need two hands to move around on a boat. Garth has to steady me when I can't hold onto anything. For the first day I couldn't even grip my phone. And I'm having a lot of trouble sleeping - my whole wrist and forearm are buggered, so I can't lay my hand down comfortably. I'm pretty sure this is the universe punishing me - the wind has just started to steady itself and sailing at the moment is quite pleasant. I'm obviously not supposed to be enjoying myself.
So that's the most exciting thing that's happened to us in a while, and I have another serious injury that will probably prevent me from enjoying more fun things. Plus it made my list of top three most excruciatingly painful experiences in my lifetime. So that's something. Funnily enough, all three have been since I met Garth... Damn his adventurous nature.
Another sunrise
Day 10
This isn't as bad as it could be. As far as passages go, this one has been reasonably pleasant. Aside from the whole scorched arm situation. The weather has been pretty chilled out and after the first few days of strong winds we've had light breezes, hardly any rain and a pretty calm sea. Most days have been really lovely. Pretty blue skies, clear water and sunshine that we admired from under the shelter of our shade cloth. Garth ripped our 'shade cloth' (old sail with straps attached to the edges) in half and redesigned it so it's more practical. It now only covers a quarter of the cockpit, the corner where we sit. So now we can pop up and check the horizon without disturbing it. And it's small enough to pull over us at night to prevent getting drenched from the waves. So I'm pretty happy. I love the sun, but I hate being underneath it.
We've trolled a line every day and caught two fish so far. But I'm not sure it counts as catching them if they just get caught on the lure and then bite the line off. We lost our lucky tuna squid, which is super sad - the metal attaching the hook snapped off. Or was bitten through. So we used a different squid and he was taken too. This time there was a clear bite mark through the line though - it was severed clean through on a sharp angle. So we wouldn't have wanted those fish anyway - maybe marlin or swordfish to be that big, but we wouldn't have been able to get them aboard. They get up to 200kgs. But we'll miss our lucky lure, he found us pretty much every big fish we've ever caught.
So we've run out of fresh food and meat. We used up our long life salami yesterday, and hopefully that meal lasts until we get to land. There really isn't much meat on all these little islands, probably because they don't pump drugs into the animals. So there's lots of bones and not much meat, which is hard to eat under way. The smaller islands freeze everything and it's all a bit dodgy. Tonga had sausages that were primarily breadcrumbs, salted beef that was primarily fat, and big chunks of corned beef. Which we don't have enough gas to cook. And of course there's fish, but I'm not sure what we'd do with a whole frozen fish. I think we're going to invest in a pressure cooker, and then we'll actually be able to cook things.
My arm is slowly getting better. It's not horribly painful anymore, just sore. I still can't really use it much though because it's my wrist that's the worst. Garth has been changing the dressing twice a day and looking after me like a darling, because he's an amazing husband. It's really hard getting in and out of our aft berth, which is like a cubby hole in the wall. There's handles everywhere and you have to lift yourself out. He just picks me up and plonks me on the stairs so I don't have to use my arm.
6 days after it happened
We're about two or three days out now, depending on the wind. As always I'm just looking forward to a shower, a real meal and the Internet, in that order. And exploring a new country. But after I'm clean and full. I really, really hate not bathing. Being dirty is something I will never, ever get used to. Garth doesn't even seem to notice. I'm absolutely dying to wash my hair and moisturize my face and shave my legs. We occasionally have a quick sponge bath out of a bucket with sea water, but I just end up feeling sticky from the salt. No matter what Garth says, taking a swim in salt water is NOT the same as having a shower.
We were becalmed again yesterday. Which was boring. So I decided to make some jelly, which would have been a delicious treat. I pulled out all three flavours that I'd stashed away and one after another found them rock solid from condensation getting through the packets. So that was really disappointing. I dug out some apple juice instead, but it wasn't quite the same.
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Day 12
I ruined everything. I went and jinxed us by saying we were a few days out and that it hadn't rained. We've been going through squall after squall over the last day, where the wind will pick up and it will pour with rain for a while. And then after it passes we're left totally becalmed and being pulled backwards by the current. Rinse and repeat. Now we're going through some really choppy waves and the wind has picked up, which is unpleasant. But at least we're moving in the right direction.
I'm pretty sure Garth is trying to kill either himself or the both of us. I can't make him wear the life jacket and tether. At least 70% of the time I'll pop my head up into the cockpit and he's not wearing it. Constant nagging helps a little, but he often just takes it off again when I'm not looking. He says it's uncomfortable. I tried to explain that drowning or floating around in the middle of the ocean for days before dying of exhaustion or dehydration would be uncomfortable too. He is adamant that he's safe. And when it's "calm" he runs around on the deck when I'm asleep, leans over the edge to urinate and does a number of other stupid things. I'm pretty sure it's the same concept as being more likely to crash your car on your own street than anywhere else - you're more likely to make mistakes when you think it's safe. But he just doesn't want to hear it and doesn't want to wear the life jacket. I'm going to tell his mother on him before I'm left on this boat all alone in the middle of nowhere.
I'm pretty sure he's also trying to burn the boat down. Not once but twice he's gone to sleep and left the stovetop on while I've been on watch. I'm talking flames here, just sitting there waiting to burn something. The other day he was tired so I let him sleep for five hours - I came down to get him and the dark cabin was illuminated by that familiar little ring of blue flames. Five hours! I'm amazed we haven't run out of gas.
So worrying about my silly husband has kept me entertained for the last few days. My arm is slowly getting better, which is good because we've run out of sterile gloves. Hopefully it doesn't get infected without them. It's still really sore but at least it's healing - I'm terrified I won't be able to go swimming in Rarotonga.
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Xxx Monique
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