January 4, 2006 - Miami, Florida

Outside the comfort zone

We delivered a 33' Quest (race-)sailboat from Mexico to Florida. Like most boats in Marina Paraiso, hurricane Wilma's rage had brought her down for a short stay on the bottom of the bay, effectively eliminating her electronics, big sails, and cooking facilities. A thorough once-over took care of essential electronics, emergency gear and small sails, but the stove was not a priority. So I prepared a variety of baked goods, and loaded the cabinets and ice box with bread, yoghurt, fruits, nuts, chocolate, crackers, cheetos, olives, and a bunch of canned foods I hoped we could stomach cold. Once underway, our first meal was a tuna salad sandwich, which is a perfectly tasty way to start three days of uncooked fare. But to my surprise, in spite of the calm weather and reasonably quiet wave action in the Gulf Stream, the tuna insisted on getting back into the water a couple of hours later.

So I got seasick.

Thankfully I only had to hang over the side of the boat once. And I think it was mainly caused by some new doctor-prescribed chemicals I have been taking lately. But it was made worse by the fact that the boat, though very fast even with just a storm sail and small jib, was extremely uncomfortable. It was very smelly, noisy and bouncy inside, and there were no comfortable dry spots to sit outside. I think a big part of the seasickness thing happens in your head. For me, it starts when I get uncomfortable - I guess I just wasn't cut out to be a racer. And so it happened that I ended up spending that night, new year's eve and most of the rest of the trip packed up in foul weather gear on a small cushion in the cockpit of the boat (going inside made me instantly nauseous) while living on yoghurt, apples, nuts and crackers, and sending good wishes for the new year to everyone I know (yes. everyone.) into the cloudy night above the Gulf of Mexico. Happy 2006.

posted by Mahi at 9:34 PM  

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