Being
at sea for any length of time exerts a huge toll on the mind and
body; the constant movement of the boat, exposure to saltwater and
the confined space. And we're never in any doubt that as human beings
we are aliens to this environment. Without the lifesupport system
of the boat surrounding us on all sides we'd be dead very quickly,
and this puts us on a permanent state of high alert - never relaxing
- until we reach terra firma.
The
following descriptions of longterm effects are put somewhat in chronological
order to reflect the point in a voyage they start to have a tangible
affect on the quality of life aboard.
>>
SEA SICKNESS is perhaps the earliest
condition to rear it's ugly head. Steve and Jason felt 'queasy'
for just the first few days of the Atlantic and Hawaii voyages.
April however suffered from bouts of sickness for her entire
32-day voyage from the Solomon Islands to Australia. One way
to prevent sea sickness is to wear a special wrist band that
influences a pressure point in the wrist known to help prevent sickness
>>
>>
SPACE is very limited inside the
boat. Two people are never more than 5ft away from each other
- a very unnatural state for any human being to be subjected
to for any length of time. Privacy is nonexistant (even taking
a poo!). And creating distance after a disagreement is not
an option either. Then there are the simple logistical problems
associated with storage of gear and drying clothes and equipment
during a storm >>
>>
The CONSTANT MOTION
of the boat rolling back and forth and side to side can be immensely
tiring as hundreds of muscles are constantly having to compensate
in order to keep the body from being slammed against the inside
of the boat every few seconds. The first few weeks are the worst
until we find our 'sea legs' >>
>>
WET CONDITIONS can make life pretty
miserable, especially when the waves are high for days on
end and the compass heading we need to make puts Moksha 'beam
on' to the sea; meaning water is consistently slopping over
the side of the cockpit and into our living area.
Some
mornings we even find fish swimming around the bottom of the
boat! >>
>>
HYGIENE is important for two reasons:
for the obvious one that it prevents sickness on board. But
also we notice a significant psychological boost to our morale
if we feel clean and 'on top' of things. It's easy to let
the ocean grind you down if you let cleanliness go by the
wayside. And one burning question most people have in the
back of their minds is how we have a poo ... >>
>>
Constant exposure to SALTWATER
is hard both on people and the equipment. This knife has suffered
severe corrosion as a result of being left unattended for
just a few days in the bottom of a storage bin.
After
a month of saltwater exposure we suffer from SORES
that erupt over our bodies, in
particular the backs of our legs and forearms. They are both
painful and unhygienic >>
>>
Once a month one of us has to go over the side and scrape
off hundreds of GOOSENECK BARNACLES
from the underside of the boat. They start off as tiny polyps
floating in the ocean but once attached to the hull of a passing
pedal boat they grow to a length of two or more inches which
obviously slows the boat down.
This
often involves flipping a coin however >>
>>
When a STORM
is approaching we prepare the boat by lashing down everything
that might be washed away and getting out our 'poormans sea
anchor' - a car tyre - ready for deployment. When the waves
get to a size in which we can no longer pedal (<20ft) we
put the 'sea anchor' out on a 100 metre (300ft) length of
rope. This keeps the boat heading into the wind and the waves
and stops us from getting blown too far off course >>
>>
LONELINESS becomes a factor after
more than a month. Being totally cut off from the outside
world we often run out of things to say to each other and
yearn the interaction with others. And a form of MENTAL
FUNK sets in, resulting from the
huge reduction in external sensory stimuli. Our thought processes
slow down, even our speech, and we find our minds slowly atrophying
from lack of use >>
