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June 3, 2000
Tarawa to Solomon Islands voyage, Update #6
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2000 23:41:02 -0700
Day 5
Wind ENExE 10 knots
Heading 190 Magnetic
If ever there was a day that went pear-shaped it was yesterday. What with Chris battling with an air leak in the water-maker and myself ailing around in the rear compartment in search of those wretched phials of grease, it's a wonder we didn't come to blows out on deck. I forget how much of a wind-up being on this boat can be: the constant motion, the smacks in the side of the head moving from one location to another, the scalded toes from pouring a cup of tea, the chunks taken out of legs by the pedals when changing shift. It's like someone's constantly jabbing you in the ribs and laughing until you snap and lash out. Such was yesterday.
After only 5 days at sea, Chris has taken on an uncanny likeness to the rancid ginger...
Today has been a joy by comparison. Aided in part by the wonderful pedaling conditions, we've also sorted out our respective issues: Chris has fixed the water-pump by reconfiguring the valves and input/output pipes (a sure cause for tension on board - anything to do with water) and I've solved another problem that was bugging me yesterday; not being able to send video clips back with the daily reports*. So there's been much laughter and high jinx on the good ship the last few hours. Chris has been practicing his Michael Cain accent while sorting through rotten veggies "My name is... .Michael Caine" (x 50). And I've been polishing up on a number of dodgy accents drawn from a wealth of multi-personalities fashioned in response to prolonged bouts of loneliness on the last 73-day voyage. It makes the whole ordeal of being out here so much more bearable. The constant ribbing of the ocean becomes merely a tickle. Yesterday when Chris emptied his cup of tea onto the floor of the boat (as he has done every day so far) there were yells of fury and words too short to share here. But today when he did it, we both looked at the swishing mess, then at each other, and just started hooting with delight.
Chris is currently cooking up his debut update due for release tomorrow (drum roll please...). So click back in 24-hrs time and hear his side of the story for a change.
*We had plans to send back short 15-30 second video clips every other day to the website, but following a call from our service providers this morning on our Mini-M satellite phone, it appears the satellite responsible for all our communications traffic in this ocean region (Pacific) is temporarily unable to handle file sizes larger than 100K. So for now, until things change, we'll attempt to keep you immersed into the experience of pedaling along with us using just words and still photos.
Jason & Chris,
The Moksha motors
Posted on June 3, 2000 6:01 AM