La Contenta - Day 15: It’s been a hard days night, I should be sleeping like a log

Day 15: It’s been a hard days night, I should be sleeping like a log

 

Today has been hard.  Our individual and collective morale has been low.  Despondency over the wind, our course, our arrival date, the accumulation of repairs needed and lack of fish has made today tough. The wind has been on our nose all day in a direction that has made our course challenging.  We have been waiting for days for the predicted wind shift in our favour but its been conspicuous in its absence. Ewen and Cal have had concerns about making their homeward bound flights and despite reassurance from Dave our arrival in Saint Lucia still seems a distant dream.  Our water maker threw a hissy fit and developed an airlock and we found water (fresh not sea) in the forward bilge. We are running dangerously low on tea bags.  Oh happy day!

 

We went through the mother of all squalls at lunch time. We could see it on the radar and on the horizon it was impossible to miss.  A charcoal black sky extending in all directions and a large amorphous hot pink blob on the screen.  It brought with it high winds, heavy rain and angry seas, and left us wet, cold and nauseous.  We knew the squall had been bad when we chose tinned soup for lunch from our emergency rations.  No one could face cooking.  Our appetite for fine food had retreated long with the departing squall.

 

Fairly soon after lunch we were joined by a single white bird that looked like a small heron or egret.  Pure white and very dainty she looked completely at sea.  She circled around several times and fought against the wind to reach the back of the boat.  After a few attempts at landing she flew on, or was carried away by the wind.  Compared to the sea birds that we had admired several days ago she flew much higher above the waters surface and seemed to fight the wind rather than relishing and playing with the lift it could give.  We wonder if she had been on a cargo ship when it had left land and found herself away from home.

 

So its been a hard day.  The rest of the crew are sleeping like a log.