Mareas - Wipe the stardust from your eyes

Crewmember Julie reports about the start of the rally.

The morning of departure there was so much electricity in the air it was exhilarating. The moment of casting the lines came easily and quickly. Berry (the captain) of my new floating home gave us all a quick debrief of how leaving the dock would go down and what we each would be responsible for. We then all took our positions and you could here a collective “ready” from each corner. On queue we each cast off our lines and Berry drove slowly forward and just like that land slipped away.

As we made our way through the marina and to the exit we could begin to hear horns and dance music and a loud speaker. There were flags and people lined up all along the exit and on top of a building waving and cheering. The guy on the mic was moderating the race and wishing each boat well as they past the gate, “here comes Mareas looking beautiful”! I couldn’t resist waving back madly to the crowd and beginning to sway with the music. My face was full smile! This was the departure I always wanted on Salty Ginger ;-). Imagine the arrival! Perhaps even the ticker tape welcoming I wanted on all our previous arrivals. Ok I’m getting ahead of myself.

Once we were in the harbour we needed to basically drive around with 200 other boats and wait for the starting call. I have never been in this close proximity of so many boats. It was remarkably calm and fairly stress free. At about 20 minutes to start we got our main sail up and set off towards the start line. Booming from the radio was the count down from 10 and then finally the sound of a canon signalling the start! We were officially off. It’s was actually quite funny because it was light wind and this was the slowest race I have ever been a part of ;-).

Happiness washed over me with open ocean in front of us. Nostalgia mixed with excitement and even a bit of salt water soul calming mixed in the blend. Deep breath in and out. This is what I’d been missing. “Hello Mother Ocean. Did you miss me?”

Even though we started out in such calm that first day, night brought very challenging conditions. In my head I was thinking this is Mother Oceans welcome home message to me, “Wipe the star dust from your eyes and get your game face on”. Seas and wind began to build throughout the day and of course reached their peak in the darkness of night. The first couple days are also the worst for sea sickness. Everyone just feels a bit off and lethargic adding to the anxiety.

I’ll write another blog about the sailing differences I’m noticing between Cat and Monohull but the primary difference thus far is motion. This coupled with sail changes and deck work caused my iron stomach hubby to make an offering to the sea.

He amazes me though. After his offering, moments later he is still crawling across the deck in darkness and fastening the preventor on the other side of boat after we gibed in big seas.

That evening we even had a big enough wave to bring water into the cockpit and get the captains feet wet as he grabbed a few minutes sleep. I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I had a few moments thoughts of “what the hell have I signed up for”.

We persevered though and all five of us worked well as a team. We have set up our watch schedules with the four of us doing 3 hour rotations. The captain Berry is on call at all times. This works well so that we can wake him without guilt ;-) and he can route plan and weather watch. That first night he was up for most of it with us.

Sunrise and morning brought calmer seas and wind and has given us time to nurture our sea legs back to life.

Life on board is slowly falling into the routine I craved. Dolphin sighting, eating, star gazing and getting lost in thought looking out on that big beautiful mesmerising ocean.