Life at Sea

Here is part 2:

We were scheduled to leave Punta del Este at 10am on December 27th. Mario and I gathered up my things and brought it down to the boat. After Mario nearly dropped all my things into the water I got everything down to my bunk and settled in.

Mario and Pablo saw us off from the dock that morning. I was very nervous. We left the marina in the clouds but as soon as we got past the break water the clouds parted into brilliant sunshine. The main sail was hoisted and we were off.

The whole first day was glorious. Sunshine and flat water. I took a little nap on the bow and got burnt. We had a lovely lunch and dinner thanks to Carole Gluck, who was riding along with us on that leg along with her husband, Peter. We watched a beautiful sunset over the ocean and prepared for the 3 hour night shift watches.

Once night fell the weather began to change. The winds picked up considerably and a steady swell began to rise on the sea. At this point I still hadn’t slept but I was too afraid of getting sick to want to go down to my bunk. I tried once but thought I felt woozy (could have been true but could have also just have been my nerves) so I was determined to spend the night above deck. I made it for quite a while and then I hit a wall and became overwhelmingly tired. I managed to sleep for an hour on the bench above deck, actually during my watch, but as the weather continued to worsen into the next watch I was awake again. The clouds had gathered to cover the full moon and there was an eerie glow on the very numerous white caps. It was the strange phenomenon of bioluminescence that created the glow. The distant glow from Buenos Aires also loomed on the horizon as we came towards the end of the mouth of Rio de la Plata.

I helped where I could, pulling and coiling ropes, wrapping the wenches, checking info on the navigator…But by about 4:30 David and Mark told me quite seriously that I couldn’t spend my life on board above deck and that I needed to brave it below. I decided I would take my anti-nausea meds just in case.

The mission was to get below deck and laying flat as fast as possible. Problem was, I still had a whole bunch of crap strewn across my bunk. David was kind enough to offer to help me get over my fears and try to sleep. At 5 am I took a deep breath and dashed down to the bow where my bunk was. I jumped into my bunk, on top of my books and everything and poor David helped me to get them put away. He set up the fan so there would be some air for me and told me I could leave the red night light on, on my headlamp. Of course the joke after that night came…Roxanne in bed…red light on…the joke is too obvious.

After an anxious half hour I finally slept. I slept well for at least two hours. I woke up for a bit of breakfast and then slept an hour more. My watch schedule was all off and I ended up being on watch with everyone at different times, which was nice really because it gave me a chance to get to know all of them more.

My efforts were rewarded just about an hour after I woke up. When we set out the day before I’d said that the only thing I really wanted out of this sail was to see some dolphins. No one thought it was very likely but I remember seeing the IMAX movie at the Science Center this last fall, Dolphins, and they had footage of dolphins off the coast of Argentina, so I know they were out there. We spotted a big clump of something on the radar, which we assumed to be fish, and shortly afterwards we saw one dolphin jump off the starboard side! David grabbed his camera and he and Mark and I ran to the bow. Soon a whole school of dolphins (still trying to identify the species) were surrounding Ocean Watch. I leaned out over the bow and watched as the dolphins skipped and glided through the water just a foot or two away. I will keep this memory as one of my happiest.

Within an hour of the dolphins’ appearance the weather changed again. A full on storm was now upon us, with wind coming from directly in front. This meant we had to take down all the sails and pitch and roll our way into Mar del Plata by motor.

Mario, Horacio, and the sunshine came out to greet us as we pulled into the marina in Mar del Plata. I was relieved to be back on land, though it didn’t feel like it for most of the rest of that day, and even though parts of the journey were frightening, stressful or boring I found myself wanting to do it again. But I’m ok with that being a little while from now!