Being strapped to a bed for three days isn’t a comfortable thing, especially during bouncy weather. So it was a very happy rower that was able to get up and walk today after the last three of Very Bouncy Weather. Just like My Favourite Apple Ever the other day,  I savoured every lungful of fresh air once I got outside after lunch today and spent a lot of time stretching my muscles. The perfect place to crunch my back is the frame of the hatch – half in, half out, arced like a cat stretching up against it, I can get a good few vertrebrae to crunch. Oh, how I am looking forward to finding a decent sports masseur in Canada! And therein lies the irony at the moment – 23 days in to the voyage and although we have clocked over 900 nautical miles made good (i.e. in the right direction) from Choshi, Japan, I have spent two thirds of that time on the sea anchor, confined to the cabin.

Serious face on as I look out of the cabin during the rough stuff

This afternoon was spent eating and rehydrating, washing and sorting, and then taking in the sea anchor. The latter turned into quite a mission – and after half an hour of heaving on lines it became clear why – the lines had got into a massive spaghetti tangle during the bouncy weather.

A tangled sea anchor is not a happy sea anchor

Look how long my hair has grown after three days in the cabin

And thus my afternoon was spent sorting it all out, in between watching dolphins. Three groups of Common dolphins came past,  of which one group circled the boat and dived beneath us blowing bubbles, whizzing and squealing as they went as though playing with radios. I still find it amazing that I can hear the chatterings of these creatures and love it that they stopped to say hello.

Incoming weather over the next few days is not going to help us towards Canada  as it blows in from the East. My weather router Lee has given me the goal of staying within a ‘corridor’ of about 40 nautical miles deep in order to avoid a contrary current. So even if I don’t make ground east, the goal is to minimise westward drift and stay within Lee’s latitude goal posts. We’ll see what we can do. First, I shall have to learn what to do with those oars outside – it feels like forever since we last had a go with those.

Evening sun as it all starts settling down

I would like to end  this blog by saying a very happy thank you to everyone for their lovely comments during the last few days. Before the capsize I was nervous and tense, with lots of thoughts of the final storm with Gulliver last year – all rather emotional and stressful. And then we capsized. Happy Socks rolled and I let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to have gone over and to come out of it safe and feeling OK about it all. After last year I was scared of capsizing and being prone like that in rough weather. And Happy Socks has just showed me that all will be OK – she rocks. And, happily, rolls.

And hopefully tomorrow we shall have a rower that rows, too.

All salty best,

Sarah and Happy Socks x

PS. All the oranges aboard send their smiley hellos to everyone – I am glad that smiling citrus made everyone so smiley.

PPS Rachel from Bardsey  – Great to hear from you! Glad you are loving WTP. I love that quote too. Hope the art course is going well and that family and animals are all well.

Christina Watts – There is soooo much dried fruit on this boat! Lots of seeds and nuts too. And plenty of sweeties/chocs etc as well – not like your boys on the Indy out for a ‘healthy’ row!

Ray Girard – On talking to my fruit… I talk to everything out here!

Stephen Stewart – Hai, genki desu, arigatou. Canada marae teokogiboto-de, ikki mas. Rokagetsu gurai kakareymas. (Thought I would rock out my two sentences of Japanese for you in response to your Japanese

My favourite apple ever

I don’t normally bestow titles on my fruit but today was different. It was The Day of the Last Apple. Slightly browned and bruised after a couple of weeks boshing about in the sweaty front cabin, but nonetheless a very tasty munch for tea this evening and the tastiest ever because there will be no more until Canada. Believe me, when you know you are down to the Last One of Something Until Canada, it tastes all the better.

And now I give you the Happiest Orange Ever – look at that smile!

All smiles

Drawing smiley faces on citrus fruits (and, where available, eggs) to leave in surprise places for friends gives me many moments of fun on dry land. The power of a smiley face is huge – try it for yourself – either smiling up an orange for your own entertainment or to leave on the desk or in the bag of an unsuspecting compadre.

Today has been a cabin day – the wind has been steadily cracking from the east all day long. Happily, our friend the Kuroshio is now (finally) pulling us Eastward too. Later tomorrow we are due a blow from the SSE – with winds of 30-35knots gusting 40knots. What makes it interesting is that it will be blowing directly against the current, which will make for quite a bounce with steep, sharp waves.  Lee has even suggested I consider rowing out of the current to avoid it. At the moment I am leaning towards staying – after all, Happy Socks has proved herself in similar conditions already and, while it won’t be comfortable in there, I reckon we will be OK.

Meanwhile, I am filling my hours in the cabin with snoozing, the odd biscuit and a very fab book on Winnie the Pooh.

Enjoy your apples folks,

Sarah and Happy Socks x

PS. In other orangey news, we have about six left I think. Still lots of lemons and limes.

My wake up call on day 17

Today turned into a rest day rather than a rowing day, filled with laundry and lunching and general pottering. It always amazes me how long I potter and tinker on such a tiny boat – there is always something to do.

The wind has been light but from exactly the direction I want to row in and, with rather large residual swells rolling in from the north, and the Kuroshio now starting to swing the boat eastwards once more, it made sense to let the current do the work. It will fade out in three degrees’ time i.e. about 180 nautical miles and more of the miles will have to come from muscle power, so for now the rest was welcome. The sea anchor is still out, hooked into the current, pulling us through the wind and swell.

Washing day is a happy day

The main activity today was washing some clothes, having made water this morning. My machine makes about 25 litres an hour when the battery is fully charged, so about fifty minutes fills my tanks nicely. There is still a rather sulphurous waft to the first few litres, I think due to having checked the system worked when we first got to Japan and then left the unit unused for a few weeks. So the first lot always gets ditched and then it tastes of nothing.

Delicious oatcakes and cheese and bratwurst, but where did I pack the chutney?

Ahead of lunch I delved about in the treasure troves that are the Outside Lockers for some treats and in search of mustards and the like for adding to my dried meals to make them more palatable. The mustards and sauces remain AWOL for another day but a hip flask of ginger wine and a tin of bratwurst made a rather welcome addition to today’s feasting which, happily, involved far fewer biscuits than yesterday’s cabin time did when I ate 1500kcal of biscuits over `12 hours. ( I never thought I would hear myself complain about eating lots of biscuits…)

So ‘twas a gentle happy sort of day out here on the blue. No more sealions , though I did throw five fishlets overboard this morning who had kamikazed themselves on deck at some point over the last couple of days. And there has been no swimming yet either – I have this daft rule that it has to be flat calm and the sun has to be out so I can see through the water at least a little way. Yes, I am a great wimp when it comes to swimming in the sea, especially when it is six kilometres to the bottom. Hopefully soon though – I know my muscles will love it and I am keen to see what is growing on the patch of cleared antifoul.

Until next time,

Sarah and Happy Socks x

PS:

C and K: Water temp was 18.1 degrees today – so rather warm in the current. It is the wind that chills things.

Alan Hind: I guess I could eat them in theory but they have all been tiddlers so far. Hoping to do some fishing of my own soon though.

Heather and Cameron: Thank you for my thumbstone – lovely.

Jonesy: Thank you for the G&T lip balm – found it today and only saw afterwards that it should have been saved for my birthday. Oops!

I woke at 4am today and coaxed myself out of the cabin to a grey morning, the sky a thick white and the waves metallic. After my morning phonecall home and while continuing to graze on anything that took my fancy for a first breakfast, I took the first strokes of the day. Having been pulled south east over night I was keen to try and scoot eastwards or north of east to cross the southward flowing current and get up the more useful eastward flow in the Kuroshio.

An aerial view of Happy Socks

The greyness had clearly committed to a full days work, but for a brief moment when the sun said hello. We surfed with gentle rollers all day long, taking a boat full of water a few times with steep waves looping over too soon. I love those moments, where your tummy squeezes a bit as the boat lifts up and runs, curling across the wave and there is a tiny moment where you see the boat roll…it doesn’t…and you relax again. I think we must have passed over some interesting sea floor or a particular swirling mixing of currents just after lunch because it felt like we were in a tide race, waves pushing up in all directions and slapping into each other.

Still trying for a perfect picture of an albatross

Besides our faithful friends the albatrosses who are always in my ‘Good Things About Today’ list, today’s highlight was the turtle whom we almost rowed over. On first sight it looked like another clump of seaweed, and then flippers appeared and a tan periscope of a head peered up out of the water to look for that which had nearly rowed over it. We were both a bit surprised, though I was probably the more excited of the two of us, and tried in vain to row back into the waves for a proper hello. And that was that.

We are now over 700 miles (as the albatross flies) from my starting point in Choshi. Not bad for 16 days at sea. Bring on the first 1000.

All salty best from out here,

Sarah and Happy Socks x

I was able to get out into the fresh air and pull in the sea anchor around 1pm today and rowed for the afternoon, once important things like eating and drinking and tidying had been seen to. After a few days of 20 – 40 knots the waves and swell have taken until this evening to calm down, so my aim of rowing a north easterly course was rather impossible.

Two currents diverged in the ocean

Instead I managed a decent line east. The north bit is important at the moment as I have just passed a junction in the  Kuroshio current and am being pulled down the southern fork, when I really want to get into the northern one. So as soon as  the dawn breaks I shall be back out there, pushing the miles away.

The skies pink up

Returning to the all important toasting, I am happy to report that it happened tonight as the sun pinked the skies and painted the world with a soft warm glow. I couldn’t find any of the bottles of fizz that have been stashed away on board, so opted for a G&T instead, complete with fresh lemon.  I munched a delicious fresh curry and rice, too – all a welcome treat after two days of eating biscuits and seeds and sweets in the cabin. A fab way to celebrate being back out here and a rather satisfyingly speedy first two weeks of the voyage – happy days indeed.

Celebratory curry and gin on Day 15

Here’s to everything

So please, wherever you are in the world, raise a something with us  – to Rosie (last year’s storm), to Gulliver (last year’s boat) , to Happy Socks and to this beautiful beast that is the Pacific.

Night night from out here,

Sarah and Happy Socks x