Journal- Wed. 7-2-08

We just reached 38 degrees of latitude and took an almost 90 degree turn to starboard; were heading straight to the Azores- due East.
Weve got 1380 miles left out of 2000. So if we can keep up the average of 100 miles per day or better, we could be in Horta in two weeks or less! This is awesome news when you keep telling yourself 30 days. I may have to stop that, an extra 10 days is really depressing. Today is madly hot. The wood of the deck is right at too hot to walk on barefoot. Not much wind- weve got the spinnaker up and are making 3-4 knots. Our Aires windvane isnt working, were going downwind and there isnt enough of a breeze to give it any strength. Our 12volt auto tiller has a broken shaft- it came unscrewed and once it let the tiller free, the tiller handle smashed it against the side of the boat; breaking its shaft. So now we steer by hand. The spinnaker flys and swoops all over, jerking the boat with it, and you have to fight that with the tiller to keep the spinnaker from folding. As a result the boat is swerving to and fro between a section of 20-30degrees on the compass. It cant be good at all for our net progress.
I ate a piece of chocolate in celebration of reaching the 38degree mark. It wasnt tomorrow's piece, but Ive been saving my daily square until evening or early morning, depending on when my watch is. Not that Kenny is back in Vegas, its only David, Mike and me, and weve decided on 3 hour watches. Today Ive got 6-9am, 3-6pm, 12-3am, 9-12am... and so on for the next two weeks. It can be really confusing when you wake up at 3am to the spinnaker popping like a rifle and you cant remember when you were supposed to be on watch, if you set your alarm, or when your last watch finished. So a long thought process begins for an exhausted, sleepy brain, and by the time that you figure out that it is 3AM, that your watch ended at 12AM, and therefore you have 3 more wonderful hours of sleep (2 1/2 really) until 5:30 or so, at that point youre wide awake. And then the progress of falling asleep starts all over again, of tuning out the slaps, pops, and jerks of the spinnaker, the rolls and nauseous throws of the waves, the sweaty greasy, slimy never ending heat, the too short bunk. And then its 5:30, time to go on watch!
The mornings are usually blessedly cool, but thats all forgotten by the afternoon when youre roasting. I like the 9pm-12am and the 3am-6am the best, although the 3-6am is usually the sleepiest. Theyre the coolest of the day.
Ive tried fishing with the closest thing I could find to jap feathers, but I cant get a bite. I think we need more line out to allow the line to sink further- right now it stays at the surface to 2' below.
So far, Im glad that Ive taken the sail. I think that it will do so much for my character- paitience is the most obvious work, along with slowing down my anxiety and taking time to spend with people and develop deep relationships. And its very much worth it. But Will, if you read this in the future, never do this again! Im writing this with a nauseous dizzy head on a table under swaying patches of intensely bright and hot sunlight, being tossed around the cabin. Im listening to the watermaker churn and the diesel engine chug- the batteries were low. Im smelling diesel fumes and sweat. Its hot in the cabin and there isnt any breeze. Im a sweaty slimy ball of stink, with only a ripped pair of plaid shorts on, a two week beard, and a greasy mop of hot hair on my skull. Ive got 20 minutes until the next monotonous watch, where I'll sit and sweat and stare at the floppy spinnaker and the swaying compass. When my watch is finished, I'll start all this over again.
Why do my friends admire me for this? How could they be jealous? Ignorance and its bliss!!
Ive got two more weeks of this, and nowhere to run! Future Will! Remember- a fool is one who does the same thing twice, expecting different results. If you dont get the results you expect from this the first time, dont do it again you fool! Its miserable and you cant escape! No matter what. No escape.