Gulf Crossing Day 4 – Monday, Nov 10th

Position @ 08:20: 26 deg 44.35 min North, 88 deg 53.00 min West

The wind came up in the morning to 20+ and puffy. We found the reefed main in combination with the jib, or occasionally with jib and staysail, to be the best combination. The helm balanced better wih a reefed main (too much weather helm with the full main,) and if we cracked off a few degrees, we were getting sustained rides at 7.5 to 8 knots. At this point in the trip, we were VMGing straight at Key West.

We turned on the motor for a couple hours to charge the batteries and to flatten the boat so that Dana could cook us up a nice meal of pre-prepped Beef Stroganoff. Cooking was tough duty on this trip. It takes a strong stomach to stay down below and babysit the stove. And you must babysit the stove. It is gimballed, so theoretically, it should not throw a boiling pot of water all over the cabin, but some of the waves were testing the gimballed stove to the limit. So Dana stood down below with one hand on the pot handle, sweating from the heat, and stomach churning from the wave motion. The product of Dana’s determination (a hot meal at sea) was a blessing. We all had trouble keeping calories down. And the hot meals granted much needed energy.

I’ve heard people say that after a few days at sea, you fall into a rythym. That the watch schedule becomes second nature and you no longer feel sleepy. Well it never happened to me. I was cranky and lethargic virtually the entire trip. If I wasn’t sailing the boat, I was navigating or checking weather. In my off watch time I was sleeping or fixing stuff or discussing our next move with Walter. Beverly said it best when she declared, “Everyone should lay down for two hours immediately after getting off watch.” If you stayed up socializing or troubleshooting or listening to music, you were setting yourself up for crash later in the day.