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July 10, 1999
Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #71
Day 68. Saturday, 10 Jul 1999 03:29:24 GMT
Wind ENE-NE 6. Heading 320M
Latitude: 01deg 01.971N
Longitude: 175deg 44.634E
Yesterday evening the wind freshened considerably to around 20-25 knots with corresponding 10-15ft swell and high cresting waves. After an uncomfortable night due in part to Moksha's violent roll as she lay beam on to the waves, we changed course this morning to compensate for being driven south. For the entire day the sea has been covered in white horses (the effect of a crest breaking down the lee side of a wave) to the horizon. Some waves are by my estimate nearing 20ft in height with visible spray leading from their white manes. Very breath-taking stuff but unfortunately not good for progress.
Matters are not helped by my having to take things a little easier today from a state of semi-permanent nausea that I've had since last night. When I woke around 3am to feeling sick I wrote it off as mild seasickness from the heightened sea state. However, the condition has continued throughout the day, at points becoming bad enough for me to retreat to the rat-hole for 30 minutes or so to lie down. The only thing I've done differently in the last 24hrs has been to go over the side for an hour yesterday to scrape some of the worst of the barnacles. There is an outside chance that I picked up something unfriendly from the water - either orally or via an opening in my skin. Whatever it is I have taken the precaution of starting a mini-course of the last of the antibiotics carefully saved for just such an occurrence as this. Even though I have only a few more days before making landfall, there is still enough time to get sufficiently sick to jeopardise the voyage being completed.
Back to the grind...
Jason Lewis, The Moksha motor
Posted on July 10, 1999 5:46 AM