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July 28, 2000
Solomons to Australia voyage - Update #10
Lat/Long as of 12.25 hrs local time
11 degs 56. 27’ S
154 degs 36. 84’E
Day 11. Wind ESE 5-10 knots. Heading 170M
Morale on the Good ship took an upswing early this afternoon when we switched on the GPS and found to our delight that the increased pedaling efforts of the past 24 hours had paid off. Yesterday around the same time we were looking at the same screen but with rather less to celebrate about. We’d lost huge numbers of miles west to the meagre few gained south, putting us on a collision course for the southern reef edge of Tagula Island only 45 miles away. Being exposed onto a lee shore - when the craft you are in is sandwiched between the wind and land - is not the most comfortable of situations to be in, least of all in a pedal boat with zero alternative means of power to get out of trouble. So we decided to channel our relative panic into miles made good: April upping her revolutions per minute (rpms) 30%, self 20%, whilst keeping to an aggressive course of 170M. So by noon today, although pretty shattered from our slog through the night, we found out we’d cleared the southern edge of the island and now have a clear run through to the entrance of the Great Barrier Reef at Grafton Passage, still another 500 nms away.
My top two favourite things about having a woman aboard:
1. No one watching your efforts to open a tin of beans from the sidelines and uttering “You don’t wanna do it like that” every 10 seconds. Having two males in such a tiny space, both who each think their way is the best way, is not always such a good thing. In fact it’s very often a wind-up. That’s why God invented big open spaces like Iowa, so every man can do it their own way.
2. Although not as physically as strong in the legs for example, your average female has an unparalleled threshold for discomfort – or at least this one does anyway. Watching April extricate herself from the warm cocoon of the sleeping compartment (VOLUNTARILY I might add i.e. doesn’t have to be driven out by banging a saucepan in her ear like everyone else) only to be immediately soaked by an incoming wall of water over the port side before wrestling on a pair of saturated socks that have been swimming around in the well of the boat for the past 3 hours – and all without a murmur of complaint, let alone the to-be-expected deluge of ear-singeing diatribes too shocking to be shared here – makes for a truly inspiring display of stoicism for the rest of us blokes to follow.
My top two least favourite things about having a woman aboard.
1. Hair balls in the curry. In fact hairballs with everything; in plates of food, wrapped around the pedals, caught up in the fan, stuck to the GPS, inside my bag of M+Ms (still unopened) etc.
2. Being rhythmically slapped in the side of the face by barrage of wet bras and knickers hanging to dry on the inside of the boat.
Posted on July 28, 2000 2:26 PM