Rough Ride and Cold Cooking Solutions
Day 155/33
Noon Position: 15 39S 155 49W
Course/Speed: N6+
Wind: E16-18
Bar: 1015, falling
Sea: E6-8
Sky: Cumulus to 10% of sky, quite variable throughout day
Cabin Temperature: 86
Water Temperature: 84
Sail: #2 genoa, one reef; main; one reef, close reaching
Noon-to-Noon Miles Made Good: 149
Miles this leg: 3,977
Avg. Miles this leg: 121
Miles since departure: 21,221
Best day for miles made good since May 9th, when we clocked an even 150 miles noon-to-noon. We were four days north of New Zealand’s Chatham Island and in 38S latitude. After this the wind went fickle, and between then and now we’ve averaged around 100 miles a day. So, from my perspective, we’re back in the money.
With a caveat: this ain’t no limosine ride. It’s rough and everything feels unsettled. An open sky will be replaced an hour later by towering, gray cumulus to the horizon. Winds are cycling between 13 and 20 from the east and sometimes a touch south if I’m lucky. Mo is close reaching into the 6 and 8 foot swell that’s developed and is kicking spray all the way back to the pilot house. Hatches are closed. If the wind does go south, and we take a coures NE, Mo pounds terribly.
—
“Senior, you really must not complain,” pipes in Monte. “God be praised, this is the best wind we have had since Hubert.”
“Sure, but I wouldn’t mind if the SE trades evened out to have more south in them. I really want easting…and the wind more free” I say.
“Pfff!”
“…and if we didn’t pound so, and if I could go forward without getting a dunking and if my glasses would stay salt spray free for more than five minutes, and already I am sunburned, and it’s too hot to cook.”
“Senior, these are minor things. They cannot be helped. It is like the saying in my country, ‘You cannot order a Kale salad in a Butcher Shop.’ It is not the way the world works.”
Speaking of too hot to cook (which it is), I’ve found one able solution.
Typically my largest meal is at the end of the day. But operating the pressure cooker in a cabin that’s 86 degrees is for a braver soul than I am. So, I’ve swapped things around. My biggest meal is breakfast, and it’s cold.
But how to get enough calories at breakfast? For weeks now I’ve been eating Muesli and Soylent in place of powdered milk.
1C Muesli = about 500 calories
1/2C Soylent = about 300 calories
Mix together with water; let stand for five minutes to emulsify and have at. Tasty and quite a belly bomb. Often I skip lunch altogether.
Speaking of salt spray i n your glasses… would you still be able to carry out all your critical functions if your glasses were to go overboard? Do you keep spares aboard? In my cruising days I had perfect vision but now I wouldn’t be able to read a chart, a recipe or even the knot meter without my glasses. I’ve wondered what the contingencies aboard would need to be for lost or damaged glasses. What do you do?