*** Totem has made landfall, but didn't get our daily blog updates posted after our radio stopped working. Here is another of our written-but-not-posted updates from sea. ***
position: 7*28' S, 136*30' W
24 hour run: 181 miles
Distance to go to Hiva Oa: about 200I'm thinking back on our daily posts, and they're pretty rosy. I don't deliberately try to put the happy filter on and only share good news. The truth is that this passage really has been good. With the exception of the radio, there has been no failure of gear or equipment that we could not deal with. The conditions have been really comfortable. We have not been sick. We pass the days pleasantly, and with our superstar crew Ty on board, there are shared duties and night time watches that keep us all rested and on an even keel. There's really nothing to complain about!
That trend ends today...I'm going to whine a little. It's lumpy out. We are happy about the wind and will have excellent progress today, but it's mostly upwind (we are supposed to be in the trades on beautiful beam reaches or downwind) and the swells are confused enough that we get launched around. Just try cooking at an angle, juggling hot things on the stove.
What's really making me cranky is my shoulder. Not long before we left I was diagnosed with a rotator cuff injury. Mostly it's been fine...I take anti-inflammatories and can't use my right arm. That's correct: can't use my right arm. Not with any kind of strain, at least. This is where the seaway makes things challenging. Moving from one part of the boat to another means going handhold by handhold and pulling yourself along. As a dominant 'rightie' it's my first instinct to reach with the right arm. Can't do that!Now try cooking with one arm (you need one hand to cook, and one hand to hold yourself in one place by hanging for dear life onto the bar in front of the range). Or sleeping (it's a whole neck/arm/shoulder continuum of strain)...I usually sleep on my right side. Not any more! Never mind that it's also the most comfortable way to pack myself into a seaberth with cushions, so some rest is possible between the rolls... yeah. Not really fun.
The hard part really is that this all makes me really grumpy. I have no patience for helping the kids. I don't want to cook. I can't even do little chores like filling a bucket with water for dishes...tried that, and the arm yank was categorically bad!
Meanwhile...the boat is too small a space to be short tempered...but it's hard.
See? I can be whiny. It's not all roses.