Episode #1: Leaving Hawaii “The survival phase” (the first three days)

Hello oh you wonderful, wonderful (solid) world! We are back, arrived on San Franciso’s shores and it feels better than perfect Eggs Benedict on a Sunday morning. I am so excited to tell you about this mind-blowing and -altering experience we had…

Actually we returned 2 days ago but I had to transform back into a human being before I could start writing. Meaning showers, solid food containing lots of red meat and fresh fruit, a little bit of sleep, long walks and well, a mani-pedi.

It is 10 pm and I am currently going through the notes that I scribbled into my leather bound book during the last 3 weeks on a mostly very rocky/wavy Pacific Ocean while clutching a rope or pole with the other hand in order not to fall or be washed off the boat.

UNDERESTIMATIONS

This is the first episode of my report about this experience, but it will be different than formerly anticipated because

I was sorely mistaken in thinking that I could write daily on my cute little Macbook Air while on the boat due to these reasons
- to say it was shaky is a serious understatement and concentrating on anything as small as a keyboard would have given seasickness a chance
- it was wet. Very wet. Everywhere. (I will get to “why salt water is not our friend” later in a specifically dedicated post)
- when you are busy trying to survive, typing a diary is not the first thing on your mind. Actually, not even brushing my teeth was very much on my mind while I tried to survive the first 72 hours on Patches.
- I didn’t feel like it. I discovered unprecedented behavior within myself: I didn’t listen to music, I didn’t read, I didn’t feel like writing much. I just, well, existed. Instead, I spent a lot of time dreaming, day and night, when not steering the boat or collecting samples or looking out for trash using the Ocean Clean Up App…

Since we were trying to get away from a Hurricane, we left a day early. It was Sunday, the 2. of August 2015. We left Hawaii Yacht Club all happy and excited and yes, a little anxious as well. I had made my last phone calls to my parents and my sister, I smoked my last cigarette while on the phone with my mum and proclaimed it an historic event.

The sun was shining, the sea was blue, the waves short and choppy.

This is what Patches looked like then. Clean.

IMPORTANT RULES

Marc, our Captain (short “Capi”) assembled us on deck and gave us a short intro. We learned that (yes, in that order)

a) the boat is the most important thing. Life rafts are only to be used when it is clear that the boat is sinking and not to be saved.

b) going over board is a very bad idea if your plan is to live a long life. If somebody was going to fall off the boat, we were not to jump to the rescue, because losing the life of another passenger was worse than losing just one.

c) the toilet had two compulsory flushing procedures: pump 20 times with water. Pump 10 times without water. Otherwise the contents would come back.

First things first.

DAILY ROUTINE

This is what our days would look like:

3 hour shifts, divided into actively steering for 1,5 hours and watching out for 1,5 hours. Always in pairs, alternating.

6 hours “free” time. To sleep, cook, eat, clean, maintain some sort of physical hygene, meditate, wait for dolphins, suntan (get ridiculously burned), write into diary, stare into sea, think about life, daydream.

2 x 3 hours of trawling – in the morning and in the afternoon, each time taking three samples (one sample period was 1 hour)

My first shift started at 9:30 pm and went until 12:30 am, the next one started at 6:30 am and so on and so forth, you get the idea.

SURVIVAL

During the first 3 days, we pretty much all spent sleeping when not at the helm. We didn’t eat, we didn’t speak, we didn’t do anything really apart from trying to stay alive. The sea was rough, our steering skills below average (put nicely) and I fell over so many times that my head hurt, my legs and arms were blue and green and my knees bloody. I was also somewhat high from that Scopolamine patch I had placed behind my ear against the much feared motion sickness. (strong stuff)

During the 3rd night when poor Maureen was heaving and Eloy was green and white and lying there barely moving, my wish to the first shooting star was “make it stop”. I was so weak from not eating, I put a handful of peanuts in my mouth and swallowed them with water cause chewing seemed impossible.

When we were talking, it was mainly about that weather high and the part of the ocean that had no winds, no rain and no waves. We referred to this place as “Eden”, eagerly waiting for the moment of arrival.

4TH DAY MAGIC

The muscles in my arms were so sore from holding onto anything I could grab, I could hardly lift my toothbrush when finally, the 4th day had arrived.

Marc said “the first three days are always about survival, the 4th day is magical”. At that point I thanked him for not having mentioned that earlier.

So now, we started talking, I cooked some well-meant rice dish with beans and hunger made it delicious. Everything was going to be alright!