“I will have to have a word with the Chef…Can you believe that he made lentil curry for lunch, with figs to follow? How misguided was that? Boy,did it have an adverse effect on my stomach! Surprise, surprise. Wonder from which end it will emerge first? Certainly no rowing tonight. Excuse me…
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…Another flying fish hit me on the side of my head with such force it left me dazed for a while. (It probably looked comical – the aquatic equivalent of slipping on a banana!)
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The following day I was able to report: Strong winds have subsided, in fact no wind as such. Very hot and humid. So far, not a bad day´s rowing(always a bonus). “She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore, the shells she sells are sea-shells, I´m sure…” Managed it twice. Time for dinner. “Curry and wine tonight, sir? Table with a sea view?” “Oh, all right then lst mate.” Then it was back to the oars.
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I was later to fare considerably better than the unfortunate Joseph Le Guen, a French rower and sailor. During a bid to row the Pacific from New Zealand, he developed gangrene from infected feet and had to be rescued. Shortly after his rescue, his toes were amputated.
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I couldn´t believe that conditions could deteriorate even further. But they did.. I tried steering my mind towards pleasant things, but my nerves were in a fragile state. Imagine having your teeth drilled for a day and night, or having buckets of water thrown over you – again and again …and again!
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It was as well that I do not possess a “sixth sense” or
similar, for a forecast of what was to follow would have filled
me with horror…..
….To my great consternation, the next, I was eyeball to
eyeball with not one, but four whales. Rather
large ORCA KILLER WHALES…
Day 95 Last night – dark as pitch – there was, suddenly, a storm of frightening intensity. Visually, it was scary enough, with vivid zig-zags of lightning slashing jagged scars across the sky like flashing swords…
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Sometimes, the sky was an exotic mix of purples, yellows and reds, as if some manic artist had assisted Mother Nature and decided on a surreal sunset.
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The next day was special. I saw my first whale. It looked huge, heavy and powerful: like a sort of animated sea-tank. It was a great thrill and quite humbling. It´s difficult to explain just how special seeing that whale was. One moment, it seemed, there was just me, my boat and a lot of choppy water. The next, this enormous king of the deep was sharing my sea space, or rather I was sharing his!
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The seas were mountainous – think Everest! Great walls of water, fringed with gleaming, seething white froth, threatened to capsize us – Brittany Rose and me. The boiling sea made a simmering cauldron look like a doll´s teacup.
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