Emily Morgan - Day 9 - The Errant Cabbage

We enjoyed our lunch yesterday of freshly caught fish and Anna's freshly baked home-made bread and that was the highlight of the day. The following hours were hard going. The confused seas meant we were pitching forwards and backwards while lurching from side to side. Strong stomachs required. Under her reduced sails, Emily Morgan sedulously scaled improbably high hills of water and coasted down into the deep troughs. When the boat surged through a wave, the grey seawater that was thrust aside and became a beautiful, translucent, aquamarine green topped by a foaming white froth. The visible horizon reduced to about 20 metres as we were surrounded by massive grey ramparts. When night fell the sounds of the writhing sea were accompanied by the whining wind in the rigging, the snapping of filling sails, the clanging of metal pots in cupboards and clashing of glass bottles in fridges, the relentless rolling of tins and cans in the bilges and the clunking of blocks and shackles up on the wooden deck. The cabin reverberated with a constant thudding throughout the night. Nobody got much sleep and Anna and Bones were also on watch with the crew throughout the night.
The cloud cover gradually decreased overnight and some stars and the moon appeared. At this latitude, 19 degrees north of the equator, the waning moon looks like an egg with its top sliced off instead of a peeled apple with a large bite taken from it. The positions of the constellations in the night sky are also different and the Plough/ the Big Dipper/ Ursa Major only rises before dawn and Polaris, the North Star is very low in the sky. The morning brought blue skies and sun and a stunning blue sea and a horizon that expanded to twelve miles. During today the winds and the noises have continued and the source of the thudding, a cabbage, has been consigned by chefs Todd and Clare to the evening meal. We encountered our first squall and our wind gauge shows we've hit 38 knots. Not a record we want to surpass! Although it can be tiring work, Emily Morgan is hand steered. Having to hand steer ensures that all the crew are fully involved in sailing Emily Morgan across the Atlantic and while strenuous at the time this is definitely ensuring a memorable trip!
Elizabeth