Day 9 at Sea
Imagine if you will being on a roller coaster. Now imagine being on the roller coaster without being strapped in. This is what being aboard Doris is like at the moment. On the deck the roller coaster is cold and windswept, the track being waves the size of large houses which can come from any direction. Add to this a thorough dousing with freezing cold sea water every couple of minutes and being thrown off your seat by the odd errant wave. Losing your stomach falling off the top of a wave is happening rather a lot today. The outside roller coaster also comes with thousands of jellyfish which the sea around us is full of. The unlucky ones of these get washed up on to Doris and our deck permanently houses at least 3 or 4 blue blobs.
In the cabin the roller coaster is even less comfortable. Inside you can’t see the waves coming and so unexpected lurching and swooping movements slam you into the sides causing bumps and bruises. Doing even the simplest of tasks takes so long and is an absolute mission. To make a cup of tea in the morning you first have to stick your head out of the cabin and lean perilously out to the outside hatch to retrieve the jet boil and mugs hoping the waves don’t get you while your head is exposed. Then the jet boil needs fixing and lighting outside – not so easy in strong winds. Pouring the boiling water into a thermos flask and then into mugs whilst trying to stay upright in the cabin and then the biggest challenge – getting the dried milk into the mug without spilling it (my tremor already makes this difficult and I’ve already had to clean up spilt milk more than once). Fortunately we’re British so will go through all this uncomplaining for our morning cuppa.
The wind is still strong and cold and we are still struggling to make progress west but we aren’t letting it get us down. Singing the sound of music soundtrack at full volume gets us through a shift on the oars and earlier we saw a dolphin. I still have faith that some time soon I may regain the feeling in my feet (although I suspect that today is not that day).