back from sailing trip

I am home safe and sound. I got off of the boat in the Azores. It was a wonderful experience but I don't believe that I would do it again. It truly was as they say 90% boredom and 10% terror. We were at sea for 19 days during which I read 6 books. The first 3 days were pure hell as forty knot winds and huge waves pounded us for 70 consecutive hours. After that things layed down a lot. We still had some very windy days but not like the first 3 days where waves were coming at us every 5 seconds. We saw whales about every other day and when we didn't see the actual whale we would see the spout. Pods of Pilot whales followed us for 20 or 30 minutes at a time. We also saw some Minke and are pretty sure that we saw a Blue whale. It looked like a boxcar coming out of the water. It was huge. Dplphins were plentiful as well as a bird called a Shearwater that spends it's entire life wandering the open ocean coming ashore only to breed once a year.
We sailed with the spinaker several times during light winds and had it up all of one day and well into the night before the winds got to strong for it. We also sailed wing and wing several times with the Genoa out one side, and the mainsail out the other.
The food that we ate on the trip was not cruise ship fare, but Nick did a great job throwing some decent recipes together when the seas smoothed out enough so that being strapped to the stove was not to uncomfortable. Beans were on the table on more than one occasion. In fact, I wrote a litlle poem about it.
BEANS
Beans last night for dinner
somebody open a hatch.
Beans this morning for breakfast.
Don't nobody strike a match.
Beans tonight for dinner
this sure isn't cruise ship fare.
I got my head out a porthole
struggling for fresh air.
Sometimes a flock of seagulls
will follow behind a boat.
We're being trailed by buzzards
we must smell like rancid goat!
We thought the captain crazy
to feed beans three times a day
but then we lost our sailing wind
while traveling on our way.
"To the deck!" the captain shouted
and we gatered beneath the sail.
We dropped our pants to our ankles
and farted us up a gale!

Sleeping took some getting used to. The first 3 days it almost didn't happen, after that it was better. Thank god for lee cloths or I would have been on the floor on numerous occasions. Patrick had a problem with one of the knots letting loose on his lee cloth and found himself on the floor 3 times in one night. I see why sailors of old slept in hammocks. I learned to sleep on my back as this was the most stable way to sleep. I would slosh back and forth while laying on my stomach. Sleeping on an ocean going sailboat is like trying to sleep on a slow motion roller coaster. That is the best way for me to describe it.
There is a saying that things will go wrong and usually at the worst possible time, and that proved true for us on one occasion. I awoke one morning to a commotion in the bathroom which was right behind my berth. Nick was tearing the toilet apart. It had gotten plugged with lime scale and prodigious amounts of the normal stuff that passes through a toilet. UGGHHH!! I held tools and helped him as best that I could while he spent an hour hammering , sawing and refitting tubes until we had a working toilet again.
There was 150 gallons of fresh water on board and we used it sparingly. There were no showers and cleaning oneself consisted of putting a small amount of water in the bathroom sink and then using baby soap and a flannel (wash rag) to wash up. Baby soap was used because it was mild enough that it wouldn't be an irratant if rinsing wasn't complete.
Dishes were washed once a day, usually right after dinner which was eaten about 7:00 each evening. A kettle of water was heated on the stove, and mixed with cold water in a dishpan in the cockpit of the boat. Soap was added and the dishes were washed as the water sloshed back and forth and spilled on our feet. Dirty pans were placed in a mesh bag and dragged behind us for 10 minutes or so and then they too were brought to the ciockpit and washed. Rinsing was not an option and the dishes were dried while soapy and placed back in the cabinet.
Clothes were washed in a similar fashion. Clothes were kneeded for a while in a bucket of soapy water, rinsed and then hung up to dry on a makeshift clotheline which had been strung across the cockpit.
All organic refuse was discarded over the side. All other wrappings were cut up with scissors and stuffed into soft drink or one gallon empty water bottles. This took many hours over the course of the trip but saved us from polluting the ocean. I didn't realize how much wrapping material there is on our processed food!!!
We did have email so we could communicate with home. My wife Pat asked me one day whether I had gotten much use out of the foul weather gear that I had purchased shortly before the trip. I answered that we wore our foul weather gear almost continually. The air was very cool and spray was always prevelant. Foul weather gear was mandatory while on watch at night as the air was much cooler and the humidity was high.
I had looked forward to viewing the stars at night away from the light polution of the coasts, but didn't get a chance for a really good viewing as the moon was waxing toward full, attained full, and waned during the trip.
Night watches were splendid for the most part. There was one night in particular that I will remember. My watch started at 8:00 P.M. The winds were very light and we were doing about 5 knots. I had classical music on my CD player; The moon was full; and Shearwaters could be seen gliding about the boat. It was a magical night. One early morning Steve and I were on watch together for a brief period. I had just taken a really good look around for ships lights and was ready to go to bed. We talked for a few moments and then I took one more look before going down. "There's a ship almost directly ahead of us!" I told Steve. He looked and said that he didn't think it was a ship. He thought that it was Venus rising from the horizon, and that is what it was. We enjoyed watching Venus rise many mornings after that. Venus arose about forty minutes before the earliest day light and could be tracked high into the sky as the sun arose. It showed itself as a pin prick of light high in the sky. You really had to know where it was to be able to locate it.
A couple of nights early in the trip were dark enough to see the phosphorus in the water. The plankton would flash as the boat rocked back and forht disturbing them. It was like a minature fireworks display in the water.
After 18 days I dug out my FM radio and put the headphones on my head. We were very near the Azores and would arrive the next day. To my amazement I got a radio station right away. It was all American music with Portugese DJ's. I couldn't get my fill of the pop music.
I awoke on the morning of the 19 day at about 6:30A.M. Steve was on watch. I asked him if we could see land yet and his smile told me that indeed land was in sight. We drank coffee and took pictures of the beautiful island of Faial as we got closer and closer. I understood the ancients excitement over spotting land after many days at sea! We sailed into the city of Horta and tied up to the city dock. Nick flew the Azores courtesy flag and also a yellow flag which told the customs officers that we needed their approval to come ashore.
More later