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September 22
The wind is coming from the South now. This is not so good.
Consulting my
charts I see that I am still within a large warm eddy. This eddy creates a
current that flows in a clockwise direction and I am at the Western edge of
it. This current, like the wind, is pushing me North. I do not want
to go
north. Ah well, keep rowing, the wind will change. Gerard d'Aboville
promised me a tail wind 7 days out of 8 on this route. I will begin
keeping track. I'm not sure I can blame Gerard if the wind doesn't blow
the way I'd like, but it gives me a way to entertain myself.
This afternoon I sent out an E-mail and it nearly drained my batteries.
This has happened before when I've been making water with the desalinator
or have made a phone call on an overcast day, but today the sun is blazing.
With the adverse wind, I decided to take a look at the electrical system
to see if something was amiss. First I checked the output on the solar
panels. They were blasting out plenty of juice. Nothing was wrong
with
the connections on the batteries. After tracing each wire carefully I came
up one wire short. I couldn't find the positive lead from the load side of
my solar charge regulator. After contorting my arm to fish around in the
bottom of the electrical box I can up with the loose wire. When we shipped
the boat to the Canary Islands I disconnected the batteries and everything
from the battery switches. When I reattached the wires I missed this one.
Things should work a little better now.
September 23
I was out at 5:30 AM, but little good did it do me. The wind and current
carried me Northwest during the night, mostly north. I rowed hard all day
but a persistent wind from the South made any progress in that direction
extremely difficult. I settled for making as much Westerly progress as
possible. These days are often the most difficult, when one is rowing hard
but making little progress. My mind wanders to all sorts of things.
OBSERVATIONS ON MUSIC: Classic and Contemporary
On my last trip I carried with me mostly classical music. Taped to the
ceiling of my cabin were the portraits of thirteen presidents. Upon my
return some questioned the lack of other women on board. I never thought
about it really. Rowing across an ocean has never seemed "like a girl
thing" to me. Still, I thought it might be good to exercise some
gender
equity on this trip. When it comes to truly classical music the ladies are
woefully neglected. So I decided to find modern women who could balance
Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart. I came up with Tina Turner, Cher and Barbra
Streisand.
This is serious business. And these are serious women. Tina Turner
is the
Wagner of the trio. The morning I decided to go North of Gomera Island was
a Tina Turner morning. She represents a gutsy sort of courage. It is
the
kind of courage that says, "I'll row my hands bloody before I let that wind
drive this boat up on those rocks.” She's earned her spot on top and
besides she's got twenty years on me and her legs are better than mine are.
This afternoon required a different type of courage entirely. The sun
baked me to a cinder. The wind blew the wrong direction. The waves
while
small were steep and choppy making for tough rowing. It was a Barbra
Streisand afternoon. She is the Mozart of the group and represents the
power to endure. At home viewing my position you might think, "It's a
beautiful day what's her problem?" Well as Barbra could tell you,
"We all
get our share of trouble." It may look easy from where you're
sitting.
The trick is to put yourself out there hiding from nothing. Sure this
makes you vulnerable to every backbiting fan, or in my case, to sun wind
and wave. But hey, as Barbra might say, “I'm still here.”
Cher is for the dark nights when I think of bad storms and boats doing
somersaults. She reminds me to laugh and to not take myself so seriously.
I'm not sure she really equates with Beethoven. She has all the
passion
of Beethoven for sure and the driving melodies. But, Beethoven doesn't
make me smile as much. Like Tina and Barbra, Cher is both strong and
vulnerable. What makes her unique is her ability to laugh at herself and
at the rest of us when we go off on our high-horse tangents. (You may
remind me of this during my next high horse tangent. I'll imagine myself
on stage in any one of Cher's outfits and will immediately understand how
we all need a good shake up.)
September 24
I rose at 6:30 AM and had a nice tail wind all day. Strong enough to let
me make some distance with the oars but not so strong as to make rowing
impossible. It was a great day.
The night went less well. The wind continued to increase until the waves
became steep rollers. Still not large. I'd guess 8-12 feet, but size
is
less important to me that steepness. It was a bumpy night. After a
few
good knockabouts with waves I put out my small sea anchor to help keep the
boat perpendicular to the waves. I regretted having to do this as it is a
bit like throwing out the ball and chain. The anchor would slow my
progress.
September 25
This morning it was too rough to row. I stayed on the sea anchor until
about 12:00 PM. Then when my GPS reported that I'd been at a stand still
for four hours, I decided to haul in the anchor. It is now after 1:00 PM
and as soon as I send this off I will have a go at the oars to see how
rough it really is.
Much love to all my family and friends, I miss you very much.
As ever,
Tori
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