8) The Mediterranean

The Mediterranean 41° 02.235 N 007° 23.918 E

Last night was rough.  We have one less ceramic plate to wash or use or worry about.  It gave up the ghost sometime in the wee early morning hours.  There are many strange noises on the boat that we are trying to figure out.  They happen when the boat rocks and rolls like last night.  We located one of the noisemakers and cured it with, well, it’s not marine grade and not, uhm normal, but a folded newspaper will last a little while.  At least long enough to get some sleep.

I got off watch last night at midnight and immediately went to bed with lofty hopes of sleeping straight through to my next watch 6 hours later.  Nope, not going to happen.  This boat was rockin’ last night and not in a comfortable way.  The winds were up to 30 knots and the seas were lumpy.  I was up by 2 am rolling in my bed and listening to the noises and feeling the boat find its way.  Heard a loud crash of something breaking of which it was the plate falling off the shelf in the galley.  The boat would lift up and then follow through into the trough.  I just could not find a long-term comfortable position to lie.  Sometimes the boat hits a smooth spot that lasts for about 3 seconds and it is so weird.   Finished with teasing it then gets back to business.

Around 3:30 am Alan fired up the engine because the winds were down and we were in some very confused seas.  He set the throttle at 1,300 rpm and changed tack by turning port to get rid of the bumpy ride. 

   

I was back on watch at 6 am and watched Alan move off to bed.  It turns out he had a rough night, too.  Around 9 am we all convened in the cockpit and chatted.  John brought up the coffee for he and I and we talked.  It turns out that a Coke and a pear don’t mix.  Alan tried that last night and within half an hour he paid the Neptune tax.  Good to know.

The seas are very confused this morning and we are still rolling along.  The ETA for the next port has been revised due to the conditions.  We are now expecting to arrive around 11/4 at 3 am.  That’s about 2 days 10 hours from now.  We are at the mercy of the conditions.  Yesterday we had a tailwind and following seas well into the night that moved us along well.  Today we are sailing into the swells and seas pointing in to and as close to the wind as possible.  We are a little off coarse but headed in the right direction.

John and I just looked at the nav screen, which is a vertical mounted monitor over the nav table.  The computer tower is located abeam the cabin in a closet with a jumble of wires, inverter, TV, etc.  We are over a body of water identified as the Abyssal Plain east of Sardinia.  The conventional wisdom of sailors is that the when the wind blows in the Med it then becomes a messy, bumpy confused sea.  Today the Med is living up to its rep.  I am sitting at the nav table facing aft and looking out the window periodically to allay malaise.  So far, so good.  I am acquiring sea legs.  Based on my experience in the cyber-café a couple days ago in Bonifacio of the building moving while I was seated I am already sea-legged.

 

Several miles to port there is a large squall.  We are running parallel to it and it is of no concern right now.

 

   

As long as we continue to watch bubbles go by and are not able to count them then things are well.