Part 2: How morale changes with the wind!

A couple of Sundays back, I indistinctly remember telling you that morale was in good spirits. Well, within a couple of hours it wasn’t. Words were had in the pilot house about offering a slice of the fresh bread before the last slice of the old stuff had been consumed (serious stuff). This was between the adults and the children, not between us children. Then, Ernesto’s roast beef dinner turned out to be less than desirable – too much fat in the meat (which was undercooked and very salty). This was a very unusual occurrence, as Ernesto and Juan had proven to be the best cooks aboard. The final straw was the weather kicking off again. Up until the weather bit, we were mostly taking other things in our stride, but the prospect of more weather seemed to dampen the spirits and things started to taker on a brooding presence. I’m not saying the weather was the cause, but I think there is a pretty strong correlation!

Once the weather started to abate early a morning or so later, the mood lightened and then there was a veritable party atmosphere around lunchtime that day as we approached Tristan and while that quite soon subsided, things are still quite light around here (mood wise). I think the prospect of my freshly baked bread may be driving this (hmm – maybe some license taken here – try the count down to Cape Town and the improved movement of the boat as being the two big drivers with freshly baked bread coming a very distant third). It shouldn’t be a major surprise that the movement of the boat and the demands made by the weather place a physical and mental strain on the crew. While things can be helped somewhat by a positive attitude, a lack of sleep and a heightened sense of danger combine to drawer down energy reserves and before you know it – you’re knackered and only getting worse and there is a very serious and at times fractious vibe.

The energy reserves seem to immediately, it only temporarily, improve once the barometer starts to rise, the winds drop a little and the new sailing objective is set – for us at that time – it was getting to Tristan – a doable distance and in improving conditions. It wasn’t about getting to safety, because Tristan doesn’t afford any! We were only 130Nm away at the height of the last storm, but Tristan has no safety resources, and in any case, there are no means of launching any from this remote, challenging place. So, for all intense and purposes, help really it doesn’t exist! There is no airstrip, no helicopter, no life boat, nothing. Our nearest source of help would have been Cape Town or, one of the non existent passing ships. There was great excitement when a vessel turned up on the Chart Plotter (on AIS) and showed itself to be a beam of us, but over 10 Nm away and in those seas, we definitely would have we seen it.

So, knowing that the nearest source of help is just over 1500 miles away when you’re suspended 4 miles above the sea bed in howling winds doesn’t provide much relief. But, getting to see land, achieving a shared objective, knowing we’re much closer to achieving our ultimate goal – completing a crossing over this vast ocean – this combination is the source of relief from anxiety and to be honest, the ultimate irradiation of any pettiness. But, intimate proximity like this on what might be a big sailing boat, but still relatively small compared to land facilities, where we still fall over each other in the shared parts – is just like being part of any family living together in a restricted space over an extended time period. Sometimes small things combine to obscure the bigger more important ones.

So, morale was restored relatively quickly, and to be clear, it was never a huge deal, more a personal thing, but we all palpably felt it and knew we needed to keep ourselves restrained and be careful in what and how we said things.Whatever happened or happens on this boat it will be filtered when we get on shore and I think we will all retain great memories, and some may never be spoken of, because the positive outcome we’re looking for, doesn’t need to factor in any of the negative. The negative were all transient and the positive are all lasting. But, as I write, we’re far from being there yet and as I said, let’s not count our chickens!

This is a bunch of really good guys and we work well together. My watch buddy James and I get on very well and we’ve had some great late night discussions. Over time, normal people reveal things about themselves when in close proximity and sharing trying times and that’s exactly what we’ve done. He is a massively experienced sailor and he has overcome some major health issues to get to where he is – active and fully contributing. I like and respect this guy a lot.

I’m sure once we’re on land, there’ll be time to reflect further about this entire group and provide some insights and color to help you get to know them better, but for now, morale is good again and I hope the prospect for decent weather and a good run to the end keeps our spirits high.

Pip pip

P.S. When I wrote this, the weather piece was taken from the weather forecast and as we’ve already established, there seems to be an alternative facts to that. We didn’t get better weather and it remained challenging and likely will so until the conclusion, but those memories too will be limited to what is needed too keep the experience in perspective and no more (well, may be a little exaggeration for effect, but no more).