Part 6, Sailing Las Palmas, Spain – Santa Maria, Cape Verde.

Nov. 17^th 2010

Ohh my God - look at the hole in the front sail

The good thing about getting up early for the morning shift is experiencing the end of the night and the beginning of a new day when the darkness slowly surrenders to light. A warm golden light that beautifully takes over the sky. 

The time is 07.35. I got a few hours of sleep before having to leave the cozy sleep to take my part of the navigation while captain gets some deserved rest. Still 353 nautical miles (654 km) to go of the 860 miles we started with. So still a pretty big slice of distance left to consume. We haven’t given up on hoping for what we initially expected for the voyage: calm winds and small rolling waves. The joyride! Please knock on our door – we would greet you with hot food and maybe even a glass of wine.

Waves still rocking Captain SBock around. I guess you see it - or have a look at the lamp;)

The drinking part in general we were very bad at. Naturally in these conditions we didn't have or want any type of alcohol. But I had made it a routine to fill up everybody’s water/juice bottle and it stroke me how limited our consumption actually was. I made a quick count; 21 liters in total in 5 full days of travel. That gives an average of 1,3 liters per day. Even though Sheilah had a slow start with seasickness the first 3 days Gunnar and I was still up night and day apart from the pieces of sleep we got here and there. Not at all enough. You are supposed to drink at least 3 times the amount a day. 

It made me remember an incident some years back when I was responsible for a tour in Brazil/Argentina with a group of 20 tourists which mostly not were in the young age anymore. At a time we were spending 3 days in a small camp in the jungle in the area of Manaus in Amazonas. After a full day excursion visiting Indians and seeing the meeting of the waters we were having a well deserved food buffet with drinks. One of my guests was not feeling hungry and didn’t seem too well. He decided to walk back to his cottage for a rest. I have a lot of respect for these elderly people and was worried. They are mostly made of stuff at a time of the century where you do not wail. Their age taken into consideration they are strong as a bull. So the sign of “weakness” made me alert. If he was getting ill it could have a great affect on the rest of the tour and if it was something serious we were in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country. Bad timing.
While I was walking with him he rejected that I should even bother but I insisted and was trying to figure out what we could do to stabilize his condition and hoping that a rest as he said would be the remedy. Suddenly I discovered that he was not walking straight and he had stopped talking.
Just before he fell to the ground I caught him instinctively without giving it a thought. With a girl on a green field it would probably have been very romantic. But not in this situation. Actually I was terrified. I was not sure if he had decided to die in my arms out in the jungle!!!

My mind went to “code red” – ALARM!!! My mind got ready to provide CPR if his pulse would not be there. To my luck and immense relief his heart was giving out beats and just some seconds later which seemed as several minutes he opened his eyes and was of course very confused. My guests which from distance in the restaurant had seen the incident was now standing around so it must have been a weird way to “wake up” lying in the arms of the guide and heads around you - in the jungle…
It proved that he was dehydrated and natural forest tea with plenty of sugar soon made him smile again so we could continue the tour with no interruption, just another adventure to talk about.   

Being aware of our limited water consumption therefore made me alert and I kept on eye on any symptoms that could relate to it including my own headache which was gone for now.

Sheilah and Gunnar having a "gourmet" can dinner and something to DRINK!!!

We continued our 3 hour shifts with our heavy eyelashes. What was positive was that the waves finally seemed to calm down and was reaching about 3-4 meters in height now. It made it a bit less stressful to navigate and we could start enjoying the stars in the dark night again. Also the sounds of the boat appeared lighter and even though falling asleep was not a subject whenever you found yourself with the potential of 2 hours sleep, it was great not to be rolling around in the cabin so much!

Goodnight!

We all enjoy another sunset for dessert

Stay around for me waking up soon again;)