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Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵ It’s 6pm on Saturday night. Chris and I just brought the Spinnaker’s body bag on deck so he could perform an autopsy. He has clews and tacks, seams and sheets strewn about the cockpit like body parts at a murder scene. Mia is taking photos, and the rest of the crew is wide-eyed, mouths agape, as we observe Chris prodding his corpse behind the police tape. Oh the humanity! So, like, normal Saturday stuff. We started the engine for the first time in a week, either to charge our batteries, or to make a fast getaway - our kite’s murderer is still out there somewhere, lurking. Ella made pancakes this morning. That was cool. I took a nap or two. Read my kindle for a bit and then moved onto learning about the Pacific in a sailing coffee table book that was sitting on the settee. Um, what else? I had a lunch. Seriously, how Magellan made his way around South America without dying first of abject boredom is lost to me. But seriously, please God entertain me with something other than Alejandro’s undergarments, or Jeff’s senility. There was a moment today that I offered to get our stereo going, but was shot down by Bruce unexpectedly. Does he not realize I have the entire Beatle’s collection on my iPhone? During our “ups and downs” sharing over dinner last night, Mia highlighted that this trip is unique to each of us. In another week, she reminded us that it will be over. I hope she’s not referring to a similar end that met the kite. Now is the time to get what you want and bottle it up for later, she said. Something about that struck me. I’ve been complaining inwardly and to those that will listen, about the boredom I’ve reached. I see it in the hollow eyes of the other crew as well. Who will be the first to throw themselves from our vessel, or climb in the bag with our deceased sail friend. But in rereading my blogs today, I was reminded that “patience” was what I expected to alter or enhance out here. So how am I doing? Today seemed like a corner was turned on sitting in the discomfort of boredom. I found moments of happiness and laughter, during interactions with the crew. I sprayed Alejandro with the salt-water hose while cleaning the deck for example, and his sharp rebuke brought me joy. There were periods of solitude, where I was lost in my novel, or looking over the sunrise, trying to capture the scene for a lifetime. There was a sweaty nap, rocked to sleep by the ocean and Jeff’s erratic driving. These all constitute living, even if I didn’t cross something of productivity off my list - my normal measurement for a “good” or “happy” day. There is also a rhythm to all of this. My favorite part of the day is coming through the companionway in the early morning, the seas cloudy and dark, reflecting the gray morning, and sitting to watch the horizon. The quiet, the peacefulness - both reminders of a new day, full of promise. Or boredom. There is something magical about that. By mid-day, its too hot to be in the cockpit, unless on watch, so we all disappear like cockroaches into the nooks of the ship. As the day cools in the afternoon, the crew emerges again, energized by a nap and the forthcoming community meal. Rhythm. Repetition. Boredom. I think I can bottle all of that up, and pop the top on shore, when I’m scrambling to meet a deadline, or racing a kiddo to practice and all I desire in that moment is the calming waves, the heat of my bunk, and the monotonous boredom that I’ll long to get back. And if that doesn’t work, I can pop the top of a Red Stripe. Or 12.
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Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵  “Hey Royce, what’s your breaking point for days on a sailboat?”, Staton asked this morning during our first watch.
What a great question, I thought. Here we are, 12 days out from our departure from the Canaries, and I can’t recall at which point I grew tired of answering his stupid questions. “I don’t know, buddy.” I responded pleasantly, his inquiry interrupting my thoughts of leaping over the rails. “I think I’m less excited about long passages like this than I was before. I’m bored, when all the days are the same.” I shared. And as I reflect on this trip, with 1,000 miles to go, I think I reached my “I’m done now” point a few days ago. That was an open question coming into this adventure. How many days at sea before I wanted to reach land, murder myself or others? On my first blue water adventure, when I was into day 3 I felt like I could stay out here for weeks. Which begs the question: do I want to murder Staton? Also, is there a version of this passage that would extend the “days-at-sea-breaking-point”? I see the appeal of making the passage as short as possible by keeping the sails flying, mourning the loss of speed (RIP Kite), actively trimming the sails, working the crew, etc. BUT, there is a monotony to just sailing that diminishes the experience, in my unsolicited opinion. What I wouldn’t change is the weather. I’m perfectly fine being too warm, juxtaposed by the borderline hypothermic temperatures off Sweden. So, lower latitude sailing like this, or what I imagine the South Pacific to provide, is definitely a must. Other areas of improvement would entail hydraulic furling sails allowing us to quickly drop our power and enjoy a half hour of swimming every couple days. A Bimini to provide shade and auto helm would collectively allow us to sit in the cockpit and read, or talk, without the punishment of the sun or Alejandro coming up when he should be falling away. Music! For the love of God and sweet Baby James, music. We should add that to the mix. Fishing. I love the idea of getting a Mahi on the line (dropping sails quickly to land the fish) and enjoying the activity of making sushi rolls. In short, I want a more varied day if I’m going to be bobbing around out here for weeks on end. I’m not interested in diversifying the experience by working on the vessel. I cringed today, watching Chris rip apart Falken’s circuit board to troubleshoot our lost navigation system. Don’t ask me to splice a line for pleasure or raise a third sail for speed. I’m not unhappy or disappointed by this trip. Each of these passages has taught me something - there’s no fucking way I’ll even look at a sailboat in the North Sea again, let alone board one, for example. But what is life other than a series of experiences or mishaps, teaching us what we really want. Speaking of, I just spilled my 12th coffee in fewer days. So let’s add mocha-colored cushions to my “must have” list for next passage. As the sun descends, AGAIN, over the great blue, all of us sitting in the cockpit talking, I’m reminded what I do love. The sound of the waves, the rocking of the boat, the community, the sense of adventure, the absurdity of a massive passage creeping toward it’s goal. Give me more of that, sprinkling in some activities during the day, and some friendly jabs at that hairy Neanderthal, Staton, and I’m happy. Rinse and repeat tomorrow :) Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵  ‘I wonder if Ella can tell who’s at the helm by watching the instruments below? Has she noticed how awesome I am at keeping a course, amongst these confused waves and erratic wind patterns? I am really in a groove here, anticipating the next…’ “Come down, Royce.” - my thoughts interrupted by Ella’s abrupt command from the companionway. “Try to stay at 290.” - she suggested politely. “But I was sailing at 290!” I retorted, skipping several of Alejandro’s leadership tenants and jumping right to denial and a new step, frustration. All this, while bouncing back and forth 90 degrees, losing absolute control of the boat. “Try to keep 120 off the wind, Royce” Ella calmly continued. “I can’t hear you, Ella! What?!” My anger growing. “Try to keep 120 off the wind” she instructed, with proper Queen’s English, frustrating me all the more. ‘I was in a zone, goddamit’ - I thought to myself. ‘I was doing awesome’ I’m awesome. Am I awesome?’ “Vicky! Wasn’t I on the right course? The sails weren’t luffing, before were they?!” I asked my watch mate, clearly caught in the crosshairs of my heated argument with a perfectly calm 18 year old, several times more experienced than myself. “Err…”. Vicky, who grew up in a country ill-equipped to deal with conflict, was at a loss. What side do I choose, she thought? My original alliance to England or the more powerful neighbor to my south. Looking to the sky for guidance from the Maple Leaf constellation, she remained perplexed and quiet. And so, with 10 minutes to go in a six-hour watch, I followed my instructions until I was relieved at the helm by a much calmer Bruce. Quietly, I stormed off into my cabin like a teenager stranded at home on a Friday by his misguided parents who selfishly won’t let him go to Matt’s house because his parents aren’t home. So unfair. And now, as the sun rises over our stern, the calming breeze reminds us that a new day brings with it a new beginning. I am shoveling the pancakes that my adversary from the night prior lovingly prepared into my mouth. “Ella, I’m sorry for being a dick last night. You didn’t deserve that” I said calmly, in between bites as I turned to look at her (‘but I was crushing it, wasn’t I’ my subconscious asked her) “It’s ok” she replied (‘And you were such a little bitch’ she mentally responded) See Vicky, there’s no need to bring conflict. Why don’t you understand this? —-  You might be wondering, at least I am, what the hell consumes the crew for an entire day. This trip reminds me of our human desire to manufacture entertainment. Yesterday, around 2 for example, well before my much-deserved chastisement from the second mate, Ella helped teach me how to use a sextant. And so we’re clear, despite the phonetically accurate spelling, this does not refer to a house of ill-repute, located midway across a Moroccan desert. She helped me use this medieval sex tool to find our location on earth by taking a sighting of the sun’s location in the sky relative to the horizon. “So, Ella, I just look through this telescope and the sun reflects off the mirror into my eye?” I asked with curiosity. “That’s correct. And then line it up with the horizon” “But, uh, won’t I go blind?” I wanted to clarify. You idiot, she must have been thinking. And so, I took a sighting, and was hesitant to let Chris know that we had somehow ended up in the Indian Ocean. So much for navigating. Better I retire to my comfy spot on the settee below decks, where I can’t hurt my eyes or scare the crew. While I’m writing this, in my said “safety-zone," Mia pleasantly suggests that our watch, recently relieved from duty, is responsible for dishes. Springing to action, having learned my lesson during SpinnakerGate, I attacked the dirty coffee mugs with vigor. And from my station in the galley, I heard the following interaction: “Is Jeff awake yet” Mia asked his watch mates. “He’s reading in his bunk” Bruce shared with patient exasperation, clearly not surprised by his mate’s tardiness. I get you, Bruce, my daughter Nora is the same way. “Go put on your socks, pick up your room, and come back downstairs, Nora.” I might advise her on a Saturday morning. Four hours later it dawns on me, as I notice her untied shoes, that she never came downstairs. Checking on her, I find a barefoot daughter coloring in her room, amongst the chaos of toys and stuffed animals strewn about. Oh, Nora, you’re going to make a great barista one day. “Jeff, you’re on watch.” Mia instructed 15 minutes later, and you can’t make this shit up, Jeff comes out of his room whistling Dixie. This is where I should give a selfish plug to 59 North for paid passages across large bodies of water, with fucking children. Bless your heart, Mia. You are a saint. —- On the other end of the absent mindedness spectrum, we have Nelson. It’s not his fault for being forgotten in my journal this many days into the voyage. We have a watch system designed to separate crew, a precaution Chris enacted to avoid any mutinous plotting. Only during watch shifts, like passing period in middle school, do you get to see your friends who were relegated to a different classroom. It’s during these changeovers, which I look forward to if for nothing other than to get reprieve from my Costa Rican hanger on, where I see the doctor. Nelson has a quirky way, with little time to waste, of sneaking in an observation that lands in a hilarious and insightful way. “Mia, it would seem on brand, nautically speaking, to have a gelato machine in the galley, don’t you think” he suggests with a combination of ironic accuracy. If Paul Rudd and Jimmy Fallon had an intellectual love child who pursued a career in medicine, you would have Nelson. During longer passing hours, we dive deeper into the interesting past of this liberal Texan. “There was that time when my dad and I reluctantly strip-searched a chain gang of Mexican road workers all sharing a commonality in neon underwear,” he absently contemplated, as we all sat wide-eyed, like “dude, you can’t just skim over what is clearly a mind-blowing story!” Or, he might regale us, in between describing black tar heroin at a molecular level, with stories of negotiating hair-pin turns on the Yucatán peninsula in a hard top Cadillac, with a B-List Hollywood actor riding shotgun, whom he met at a roadhouse in Puerto Vallerta the night prior. Just dote on your daughters, Royce, and everything will be ok, he advised me one morning with profound simplicity. This guy gets me. With rapt attention, I’m confused by my desire to listen. Does he also think we’re now dating, I contemplate in a daze, as the sun sets behind him, silhouetting his mane of brown hair. Pull yourself together, Royce, I remind myself, snapping out of my awkward love spell. You’re married. To a woman. You need off this boat. And the sun sets on another day at sea.
Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵  “Bang!” Peeling back one side of my noise-cancelling headphones, I listened for screaming or anything that might reveal the source of the noise. Nothing. I continued to get comfortable in my bunk, having just laid down for my 8pm to 2am slumber. “Guys!” Staton entered our forward cabin with the excitement and concern of a little boy discovering a snake under the front porch. “The spinnaker just blew. We lost it!” He expressed. “Is it in the water?” I asked with mild irritation, more concerned with the likelihood that I would be required to dress and help above decks than the ramifications of losing our power. “No, it’s still attached to the boat, but ripped in half”. Staton shared in exasperation before turning to go, back into the chaos of the cockpit. Looking over at Alejandro, peeking back at me over his lee cloth, I noticed we shared the same concern. Will we have to get up now? Has Poseidon stripped us both of any consideration for our crewmates? Are we always this selfish? I glanced through the hatch that provided a skylight to our little bunk room and watched as half a spinnaker fluttered comfortably in the breeze. ‘What should we do’ my eyes asked Alejandro. Neither of us wanting to move. Then came the command to help on deck. Alejandro jumped out of his bunk adorned in his Costa Rican Super Man underwear, and I in my boxers. Forgoing all safety, or decency, we opened the hatch, and hopped on deck, reporting for duty. Vicky, our quiet Canadien, sprung into action to assist pulling the sail down to the deck. At that point, we collaborated to gather what was left of the kite and shove it down into our bunk room below. Lines, shackles, ribbons of the ripped sail, the sail bag, my aforementioned guilt - all down the hatch. Looking below at the mess we had created in our bedroom, I realized any hope of a restful night were as likely as a repair job to the pile of ribbons that once powered our boat. 20 minutes later, we had bagged the sail, cleaned the lines and dragged the entire mess back on deck to throw in a forward cabin. My little Latino roommate and I retreated to the cockpit to cool down in the evening breeze and await further instruction. Now what, we asked, looking to Chris for guidance or a glimpse of hope in ultimately reaching Antigua. “We will sail without the spinnaker.” He clarified, for those that were unaware paper-mache makes for a poor sail. Was this punishment for not cleaning Mia’s kitchen, or screwing up the logbook for the 6th time in as many days? Was Poseidon mad because we were always steering away when we should have been coming up? Or coming up, when clearly the captain wanted us to fall down? Whatever the cause, this would certainly slow down the trip. But again, my opinion has been made clear before - there are faster means of reaching a destination than via sail. That said, there was general excitement earlier in the day over our anticipated arrival date, given the heavier winds, and breeze direction. I had laid out an entire agenda, given our anticipated early arrival. There would be site seeing, and rum tasting, scuba diving on Antigua and even thoughts of an overnight or two in Miami to catch a Stanley Cup game. Back in my bunk, dreams of an early arrival crushed, I was reminded that mother ocean was still in charge. Man plans. God laughs. With that, and the guilt of my selfish response to assist, I rolled in my bunk, sleepless, for 5 hours before I was again called to my duty. —-- It’s 4:23 the following day. As if to accentuate the previous evening’s losses, we were greeted to dark skies and angry seas in the morning. Which, according to Nelson, a “doctor”, was my mood’s diagnosis at 8am when he came on watch. No sleep, guilt, lost dreams, compounded by a shortage of cereal had all put me in a foul mood. Crashing into my bunk, exhausted and fully clothed, I was lights out on impact. And when I awoke, everything had changed. Four hours of REM cured nearly all of my ailments. The sea state had settled, and the blazing sun had befriended a cooler breeze while I was asleep. Mia had prepared fresh scones, which to Staton’s vocal displeasure (he can be such a baby sometimes), I devoured with a ravenous appetite. Brushing off the Captain’s comments about my mercurial state and misunderstood sleeping patterns, I all but skipped up to my watch thirty minutes early. I found time to read, sunbath, prepare hard boiled eggs for the crew, and even knock out a quick load of laundry over the handful of hours since waking at 11. We are on a course that will force us to jibe a few times before arriving in the Caribbean, but all is not lost. I’m still hopeful that there is scuba diving in my future, and perhaps a Panthers game in Miami. I’m the eternal optimist - as long as I get my sleep.
 Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵  “This is called leadership development.” Alejandro stated with absolute authority, looking his pupil, Staton Apple, in the eye. His student had been on the receiving end of chastisement from the captain in recent days and Alejandro wanted to help him with a more effective strategy than apologizing and accepting responsibility for his actions. “Explain your theory,” we requested with rapture. “First, ignorance. ‘What are you talking about?’” Alejandro explained, in an effort to help the poor guy. “Then, you deflect. Taking 100% of the blame, and placing it on a different culprit. That’s it. You can be specific - you are deflecting onto one person. Or general - you stop talking about you, or him or her, but we. Like a group thing. Everybody does it. Everybody is doing it” Uncontrollable laughter from his classroom. “What about gas lighting?” I inquired. “What is gas lighting?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about honey? Just because an ex girlfriend slept over when you were out of town doesn’t mean anything happened. You always assume the worst and should work on that,” I offered as an example. “That happened to me in Amsterdam,” he responded without pause, understanding and adopting the strategy into his leadership theorem without argument. Again, round of laughter. “Then, denial. It wasn’t me” He simply stated. “Finally, you can accept responsibility but not without groveling. ‘Oohh, I always do this and can’t help myself’,” he concluded. “So, ignorance, deflection, gas lighting, denial, acceptance and groveling. Staton, follow those simple steps, and you’ll be much more effective. And ready for middle management” Alejandro reviewed. A final round of uncontrollable laughing. Mind you, all of this is explained in a combination of Spanish and English, delivered with enthusiasm, like Modern Family’s Gloria telling Jay about her Columbian education in helping a body disappear. And this, on a Tuesday morning watch as the sun rises aft of the stern, is how we are starting day number 8 on our journey to Antigua and spiritual enlightenment. God help us, and our friend Staton.
Where is Royce? Click to sail along! ⛵ It’s Monday. Ugh. Mondays. Does anybody enjoy Mondays? Back to work, the grind, packing lunches, shuttling children, answering emails, etc etc. I learned on my 4am watch that my beloved Colorado Avalanche fell to the Seattle Kraken in game 7 of the first round. An emotional blow and end to a great season. I shared the news with my Seattle resident/watch mate, Staton, right before I spiked his coffee with Jeff’s toenail clippings. So, not a great start to the week. And yet, absent work emails, children, or any sense of responsibility, which to the disapproval of my crew-mates I’ve left in our wake, today was no different than a Saturday. Oh, and I’ve already jumped on the Florida Panther’s bandwagon, cheering for their success so I can catch a Cup game in Miami en route back to Denver. Similar to a weekend, I leapt out of bed around 9:30, fully recharged from a full six hours of sleep. What was a bare minimum on land now results in a full charge at sea - likely due to some time-space continuum only existent offshore. With Mia’s guidance, I prepped a pancake breakfast for all those awake. While the crew didn’t fight with one another, make a disaster of the dining room, or ask for more iPad time, it was much the same as a Saturday morning with my Zimmerman Crew back home. Now it’s nearly 6pm. I’ve been up all day, both on watch for four hours, and just enjoying the quiet afternoon slip by from my perch on the settee below decks. That’s boat-speak for the cushioned bench surrounding the dining room table. I can hear the waves lapping against the hull, the turn of the winches every so often in the cockpit, and the muffled voices of the other watch above. The fans and open hatches keep the cabin a fairly comfortable temperature - the sun out here is relentlessly trying to burn all of us despite the pancake batter of sunscreen we’ve layered on since our last shower. I’ve been lost in the novel “Lessons in Chemistry”. It has me laughing out loud and sideways with frustration in equal measure. Exploring the misogynist, sexist, and unfair world that existed for American women back in the ‘60’s (and still does for most of the world) has me thinking about how lucky my girls are to be born in this century. I peer over at Ella and Mia, contemplating my feelings around having two younger women in charge of my routine, my safety, and my sailing education. And again I’m frustrated, realizing that humanity took way too long to recognize the unique talents and potential contributions of women. I eagerly offered Mia a fresh coffee on a reading break, hoping to chip away at the thousands of years of reparations her team is due by mine. Following pancakes, but before our watch, the wind died, the waves collapsed, the clouds disappeared, and our little boat that had been effortlessly ticking away 6-8 nautical miles an hour was becalmed. We still bobbed along at 3-4 knots, enough speed to get us across the Atlantic, but only after sacrificing half the crew when we exhaust our food rations. After the Captain’s weather forecast and the assumption that we will perish at sea, there was a hasty collection of straws to determine who was first to be thrown overboard. Before any of us was forced to a watery grave, Chris started the engine, and we were back on our 8 knot journey. Jeff should still remain on high alert…this fuel can’t last forever. The day progressed, the wind returned, we hoisted a second head sail, and are making great time. I’m hesitant to ask Mia what's for dinner, for obvious reasons.  |
Previous Trip Posts:
September 2024
We're the Zimmerman Family!
Home Base | Denver, CO 
A family of six that
LOVES to sail! Follow our crew (Royce, Tara, Avery, Charley, Nora & Ruby) as we blog our sailing adventures Upcoming Trip:
9.4.2024 | South Africa Previous Trips: Set Sail 4.22.23 Las Palmas - Across the Atlantic - Island of Antigua Set Sail 9.22.21 Sweden - Germany - United Kingdom Set Sail 7.18.19 Newport, RI - Martha's Vineyard, MA - Nantucket, MA - & back! Thanks for reading ! |
