So much for my plan for daily blog updates.
My plans to read Moby Dick, finish my podcast on the Civil War, and think deep thoughts are doing even worse.
This is the first time I've had the energy to do anything other than sleep while off watch. We're sailing upwind, generally 20-30 knots of wind, so we spend a lot of time heeled over pretty far. just moving around is a lot of work. The approximate position in the title is because the nav station is all the way at the back of the boat, and I really can't be bothered to go there.
The sailing itself is going OK. We had a good start and were in second for a bit, but we've since dropped back to eleventh. Part of that is tactics. We're in a group taking a slower route than some others, but it's shorter, and we think the weather looks positive in the long run. But we're also going slower than some of the others on the same route. We're deliberately spreading work around to get everyone up to speed on all roles, then really targeting the next two races. Still frustrating not doing better, but it feels like we're executing OK as a team.
The night sailing has been pretty spectacular. Some nights, we've had clear skies full of stars with a number of shooting stars. Last night was cloudy and inky black, with the only light coming from the phosphorescence of the water as we churned it up.
One thing I've been reminded of is that I don't like being the new, inexperienced guy. During training, I'd say I was as good as anyone, better than most, at least of the inexperienced sailors. Now though, some of those inexperienced sailors have crossed oceans. It's actually cool to see how far some of the guys I know have come and think I'll get there when I'm done with this. My watch leader, Barnaby, says he's one of those previously inexperienced sailors, but I don't believe him. He's really calm and measured and certainly seems to know his stuff cold. His only questionable decision so far came as victualler, when he planned pavlova for dessert the first night out. Very tasty, but it left him and Nick whipping cream with a fork for 45 minutes.
Time to prep for the next watch. Next update will come... when it comes.
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