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Aspen - Log 24 Tuesday 17 Dec; A Day at Sea



I thought I would describe what a typical day at sea for us onboard
Aspen is like. This is how it has been for the past 7 days:
0600 - or zero dark thirty as we like to call it. Steve sticks head out
of companionway to look for lights and ships. Clipping himself into the
cockpit lifeline he then sits in the cockpit surveying the sea state to
answer the question of why we are rolling so much - huge waves are
everywhere and spraying across the cockpit while the wind is actually
whistling through the rigging. Crawling carefully to the wheel and
instrument panel at the stern of Aspen he reads the 24 hour mileage,
wind speed, current heading and wind speed. Looking behind Aspen he
notes several more lines of squalls roaring toward us - squalls of
biblical proportion as one nearby sailboat noted.

Crawling back to the companionway he is blasted by a wave bringing nice
warm salt water into the cockpit, along with a flopping flying fish.
Jib lines, staysail lines, preventer lines, and cockpit cushions litter
his crawling path to make it even more important to crawl back.
Carefully flinging himself through the companion way he arrives soaking
wet back below in Aspen's nice cozy dry cabin.

Without looking out from her berth, Maria asks what it is like out
there. Captain Steve very calmly replies (this is extremely important
to stay calm) that everything looks fine as he grabs a towel to wipe
himself dry. Any negativity in Steve's voice or report could result in
very bad things to happen with Maria's attitude like 'What do you mean
it is blowing 30 knots'?" or 'Is that another squall behind us?' or
better yet, 'When will these gale force winds die down?'

Steve's report is that we only have 500 nm to go and that the winds seem
to be lightening up (that last part he made up about the lighter winds).
Maria then looks at the salt water dripping off Steve and knows he is
lying :)

The rest of the day repeats like this hour after hour except that it
eventually becomes daylight and we can really see how bad it is out there!

Steve and Maria


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