Sunday 11-15-2009

Good Morning! Well, we made it through our first night! At 0900 local (CST) we were at 27.50'N and 87.03'W We are motoring at about 6.6 knots and all is well.

Last night we had pizza for dinner and about 15 minutes after eating John proceeded to vomit it all up. He slept fairly well over night, woke up at 4:15AM and stayed with me on watch until 4:45 when he went back to his 'cozy bed' until 7:30. This morning we had pancakes and he ate heartily, and seems to be doing fine now! In the past he has always been sick the first day out, fingers crossed that its over now! Worst part is everything landed on blue bumbee (his blankie) so I'll be washing it soon I suppose!

::::::A little note on preparedness:::::::
Before we go sailing Jeff and I have a sort of mental checklist that we go through. There are certain things that I do now every time, learning from past experiences. For instance, I hard boil eggs. They are a great midnight snack during that long last hour of a 3-hour watch. I pre-chop carrots and onions for stews. Who wants to be trying to brace themselves in the galley with a sharp knife chopping onions at sea?! If they don't get used on passage, I will always use them in something later. Jeff and I pull the dinghy out of the water and secure it on deck. Jeff runs the jack-lines from the bow to the stern to clip our tethers into for any foredeck work. We dig out our harnesses and tethers and have them ready- at sea we ALWAYS wear out harnesses and are clipped in- its a boat rule even to clip in before leaving the companionway into the cockpit (happy mom?). I ready the pilot berth- this is the 'couch' that is used as a bed on passage. I rig up the lee cloth to make it a kind of crib and get our pillows, sheets and blankets ready.
I'm sure there is more, but this is the basics of our preparation for a passage at sea.
Stay tuned for more!

TTFN~

Abby, Jeff and John
XOX