Who would have thought that sailing across the ocean would have made me so unwell? But sickness aside I still found a way to make the best of our incredible adventure. Carry on below to find out how we celebrated our half-way party and more. Find out what it’s like to head into the back end of an Atlantic Ocean crossing.
Atlantic crossing day 10 – Down for the count.
No entry – in bed all day.
Atlantic crossing day 11 – Still down for the count.
I’ve been in bed most of the day. I got up for our halfway party. Each crewmember purchased something special, before we left the Canaries, to share when we made it to the halfway point of the trip. We had fruitcake, Jamon (cured Spanish ham), Canary Island cookies, tuna sashimi (a bonus), special pate, homemade chutney (from our lovely friend Karen), Aloe Drink and pirate party favors. There we lots of laughs and despite my ear issue I managed to have a great time.
Atlantic crossing days 12 and 13 – Feeling pathetic but getting better.
I haven’t been able to lift my head. Blockage remains. Simon found eardrops for ear infection in our first aid bag. I’ve been putting them in and living off the ibuprofen.
I’ve dropped out of doing everything – night shifts, cooking, cleaning.
I obviously couldn’t drop my sailing across the ocean situation though. The only time I get up is when I go to the bathroom. The team just got the gennaker fixed and up again! RESULT. That will help our sailing across the ocean with faster speeds.
They spent the morning unfurling it and furling it. We’re doing over 8 knots which is great to see. I think everyone wants to get to land sooner rather than later. Yesterday I spent the whole day in bed. My left ear is blocked and the pain comes and goes – I think the drum is under pressure.
The headache I have is terrible. I’m taking painkillers as often as I can. I took 1/2 a Stugeron (seasickness pill) yesterday and have yet to take more. I fear the pills might be causing the problem. It’s as if my body thinks I have a head cold and keeps producing solid mucus. I don’t think I actually have a cold at all.
My body just doesn’t like medicine.
I’ve moved up into the cockpit. I’m lying along with the seat by the wheel with the beanbag propping my upper body and head up. There’s loads of seaweed in the sea.
I just gave my number for our sailing across the ocean distance in 24 hours – I gave 178.
I’m second from last in this running pole so there’s no hope for me to win. I think Kenny is in the lead and Andrew is last. Simon is cooking bacon sandwiches. I just heard him yell ‘I’m catching up to you Kenny,’ so he must have got closest on the distance. I was only off by one mile!
Kenny is teaching Sienna a new game on his iPod. Eve is watching a movie. Andrew and Murray are sitting around the saloon table calculating scores for the distances.
So – what have I missed being sick?
Tuna steaks, conversation, movies… I’m so frustrated about my ear! I can’t hold my head up – it has to be resting on something. My hearing is gone. I can’t take my seasickness pills. I don’t know if I feel rough because of my ear or lack of seasickness pills. At least my tongue is no longer swollen! Last night I cried to Simon. Crossing the Atlantic was my big test. If I could make it across the pond without wanting to die (becoming seasick) we could then push through to the Pacific.
These past couples of days I’ve wanted to die.
The Phaia Bombers were my ticket to a sane sailing across the ocean. Unfortunately, I didn’t consider that I’d have a bad reaction to them after prolonged use. I must take this as the final sign. I cannot put myself through this agony again. Here I am 1000 miles from land and I can’t hear, lift my head up or contribute.
Furthermore, I feel very unwell. To make matters worse it’s getting hotter by the day and I’m sweating. I can’t stand long enough to shower and the sea teases me with its dark blue coolness. Maybe I can lie on the back deck and Simon can run the hose over me.
Boy, do I feel pathetic.
After talking to Kenny a bit it seems like everyone has a bit of the blues. Kenny said that yesterday was a good day to sleep through – the sky was overcast, there were squalls and everyone was a bit down after the climax of the halfway party.
Now that I look at things it is a bit depressing – once the halfway party is enjoyed there’s not much until our arrival in 7 to 10 days. We’ve broken all there is to break, we’ve all caught a fish, we’ve all done our jobs. I hate to admit it but the newness of the voyage has worn off and the excitement has dampened.
Considering my condition if I had the choice to moor up in St Lucia tonight, I would. I am, however, feeling better. Just being on the deck watching all the flying fish pop up and down has a therapeutic effect.
There’s still loads of seaweed too. At first, I thought it was blown out this far by a storm but Kenny thinks it might just grow on the surface.
Sienna and I just made a button Xmas tree (above picture) and now Eve is decorating ornaments with paint with her.
It feels weird preparing for Xmas while crossing the Atlantic.
It feels weird that it is hot out. Ironically, this will be Sienna’s 2nd Christmas in St Lucia. We celebrated the holiday with my brother’s family and our mom and stepdad 4 years ago. Back then I had no idea I would become a liveaboard sailor let alone sailing across the ocean.
Still reading this very, very, very long guide series? You could be reading this article in book form (paperback or Kindle) and gain access to many of the other articles within the website. This article about the Atlantic crossing is in my book ‘Changing Lifestyles – Trading in the Rat Race for a sail around the world!‘ The book is almost 400 pages long and details our life on land before we sold up and sailed away, our transition from living on land to living at sea, our voyage around the Mediterranean, Atlantic Crossing and our sail up the Caribbean. It’s a great book for anyone that has ever dreamed of sailing around the world.
What’s Next in our sailing across the ocean trip?
- In the next article, day 14 in our ocean passage, I was really ill but despite feeling terrible I still found ways to love the voyage. And our 5-year-old daughter. How was she doing? Read about our ocean passage.
- In the previous article, I discuss fishing, food, a disaster with our gennaker, and worse – a disaster for me. Read on to discover what day nine of our Atlantic Crossing was like: Atlantic Passage Sailing
- Click here for a general overview of our Atlantic Crossing