Daily report #100

The thought train.

Just give a brief overview of the situation. Three o'clock in the afternoon. The sun shines the sea is cobalt blue with small white heads. There is only 9 knots of wind and it is scorching hot. Once again there is no ship to be seen, as it has been for almost a week. Where are all those circumnavigators?
It's almost 40 degrees inside and outside I'm wearing underpants, a cut-off T-shirt and a bandana to disperse the sweat a bit. Ton sleeps indoors with the fan above his bed on the highest setting. There is only one shady spot in the cockpit at the moment and that is where I am :-). In the sun, what little subcutaneous fat we have left immediately starts to sputter. So don't do that. The nights, on the other hand, are finally wonderful again in terms of temperature and light with an almost full moon. There is a gentle breeze and I am now in my summer clothes in the cockpit, lost in thought. So I don't complain, at most I sigh every now and then and that only helps us move forward. We have already promised each other that when the engine starts we will go swimming every now and then. We laugh about sharks since we know what to do when meeting them, Steven explained it to us. 'Making yourself bigger, keep looking at the shark and when it comes towards you, press its nose down'. Then the shark is temporarily paralyzed and you can quickly return to the boat. With more than two sharks you have a problem and then it is a matter of 'survival of the fittest'. Where could those two newlyweds be now? Probably off the coast of Brazil. Last night, despite the wonderful night watch, funny, I just read the book about the lives of Jan Six and his friendship with Rembrand, I was still worried. The speed dropped to 3 knots in 8 knots of wind and that means that it takes us twice as long to cover a distance. With the doldrums just about in sight and 700 miles to go, that's not a nice thought. By the way, I just saw the head of Kermit the frog in a cloud pattern with a little imagination and I completely forgot that we recently had another hitchhiker, a little seagull who spent the night on the outboard motor. If we wanted to clean up the guano ourselves. But look, we took out and hoisted the light weather sail this morning. It was a bit of a hassle, but after an hour with the two of us the large half-winder stood like a picture next to the treed genoa, a much more balanced 'milkmaid'. We are proud of it. 9 knots of wind, 5 knots of speed. Fine. That's how we'll get there. By the way, I just baked bread, which raised the internal temperature from 38 to 40 degrees. Until the Cape Verde, they will make quick pancakes instead of bread, so the gas doesn't have to be on for so long. We now also cook every two days and then a double portion. Smart, right? And this way you also have time to stare into the distance and think about your dreams, for example. My god I dream about school all the time. I believe my entire career is coming along. From visual arts lessons to fights between students, school trips, buildings and colleagues appearing in the strangest places. That brain is running away with me. It's nice that we can organize a mini Oostpoort conference in the Azores. One of my colleagues is there on sabbatical. Oh yes 'the thought train'. You just met that. Alone in the middle of our own pancake universe, thoughts often run wild. Thousands of thoughts go through our heads every day, including yours by the way. Many disappear on their own, others linger for a long time and then you worry about them. The trick is of course to make the ugly ones disappear or park them for a while and continue to spin out the most beautiful ones. Otherwise you can drive yourself pretty crazy in a place like this. There was a beautiful metaphor in a story I read about thoughts and worrying. 'Think of your thoughts as a sushi bar. You don't have to grab every sushi. Take what you like and just let the other one pass.' Something to think about again...
Oh yes the canned Brussels sprouts yech! They don't like fish either.

Regards,
Ton and Mark