Friday August 4
Dena’s noon shift
Day 11…just as another storm creeps over the western horizon, gray curls of claws out with a banshee moan.
Yeah, yeah I know this one.
The rain on deck is a washing we desperately need…so that’s what we get.
We did 73.8nm in the last 24 hours and it’s weird that that seems fast.
We’ve come 773.2nm and we have 1048nm to got to Horta.
12:06 pm: A storm is reaching us just now and it was led by a wind increase. Not too bad, but James rolled in about 20% of the yankee and adjusted our course perpendicular to the storm line. That’ll give us the least possible amount of time inside.
We’re both dressed for weather just in case, but we’re sitting it out belowdecks, doing the work of managing the tension.
James’ overnight watch:
My home is a massive living thing…
!!!Slap!!! We just took a crazy rogue.
My body hurts all over like it’s reacting to a major barometric change…our weems and plath says no…we think it’s a broken piece of shit. Pissy rain and flukey winds rule the day. What appeared to be a clear beautiful sunset just turned into another storm cell. Tonight is my first 12 hour overnight watch.
Saturday August 5
2am: the moon was brilliant next to the lightning from abaft…the rains never came and I’m okay with that.
Then, of course, the sun rose and the Ocean was brand new.
James’ 10-11 am watch
10:27 am: The storm we prepped for did come, but not with a fury. We had rain all afternoon and then a brief clearing around sunset. It’s been on and off since then.
We read a lot. I (Dena) worked on Shriving for a few hours. It felt like any other rain day at anchor except we’re actually underway in the middle of the Atlantic.
James had the overnight watch and I started to fade a bit early, around 8pm. I struggled through until 9 and then just conked out. It was good deep sleep for a long while and then slightly lighter, with lots of dreams. I got up to pee at 7am and went back to bed…and fell back asleep! I got about 11 hours last night and feel pretty great today.
My last dream had the only moment I remember. I was on the boarding ladder trying to get in the dinghy but I hadn’t pulled it in. I hooked the painter with my foot and lifted it so I could grab it. All very realistic so far. Then I pulled it towards me and saw that it was underwater. I got it under me and tried to step into it so I could bail it out, which is so silly that it broke the dream and I woke up rolling my eyes.
