Sailing with Dummies

Notice that I didn't say, Sailing FOR Dummies.

We started our move from Miami to Key West for the winter.  We arrived late Friday night, and decided to hang around Miami/CocoGrove on Saturday because thee forecast called for bad weather.  It wound up being pretty darn nice.

Anyhow, we proceed to go out that night and took after wine like it was in shortage or something.  Now, ironically, did I not just post, DON'T DRINK THE NIGHT BEFORE if you tend to seasick?

Obviously, I don't listen to my own advice.

So, Sunday morning looms and we take off, and the squalls hit turning Biscayne Bay and Hemi D into a huge tilt-a-whirl. However, with Dramamine and Seabands on, I'm still doing well. Husband is turning three shades of green. He goes down below, but feels guilty because I'm up above in full foulies looking like a drowned rat.

We get to the Biscayne Channel and things calm down enough for my husband to regain his equilibrium.  He starts looking at radar and runs up excited that it clear where we are going.  I give him a sly grin and say, it's clear where we've been. Sure enough there is blue sky behind us.

At this point, I start wondering if my spouse is going to render me unconsicious and I'll wake up and we are back in our slip at Dinner Key Marina.

Now on the Atlantic side of the Biscayne Bay channel there's this area called the breakers. Not always fun on a good day, at 30kt winds on your port bow and 3-4 ft waves, you are in for some adventure.  HemiD was NOT HAPPY.  Oh, and you get to do this for about 1.5 miles.  Yesterday, it was the longest 1.5 miles in my life.  I finally turned the helm over to my spouse after I got exhausted fighting the waves.

Fortunately, the rain stopped, I stayed up to help watch the day markers.

Soon, we got on our course and decided to motor down to Key Largo and fly full jib, we were still getting some pretty strong winds from the N to NE and NW and we didn't want to worry about our main jibing.

Then, as things calm down, I realize. Holy crap, I'm sicker than a dog. I went to lay down for awhile, the boat was pretty smooth for the wave action and wind.  That didn't help, so I decided to go back up top and give Tim his chance to rest and as I was putting my foulies back on, I made the mistake of looking up and seeing wave action off the stern of the boat. And I was done. 

So, I'm going to have to learn to live with this so I got up above, send Tim down to rest, and quickly ran to leave over the stern seat to hurl.  Which is the exact time my husband came up with my life vest, saw me leaned over the the stern rail and said "What the hell are you doing?  Looking for dolphins? That's not safe at all! You know better!"

<<sounds of heaving my guts out>>

"Oh."

Points to the spouse for my safety.  Hilarity afterwards.  Because after I got sick, I felt like new. And merrily put my life vest back on and sent Tim to rest.

So the new phrase if I have to bless the waters is:  'I'm going to look for dolphins'

After that the rest of the trips was uneventful.  HemiD did some surfing of 9kts at times, and we wound up making it to Key Largo two hours before we thought we would considering the events of the morning.

However, there was no alcohol (well, one glass of wine) last night, and we are off to Marathon as soon as the tide permits.  Supposed to be a beautiful day.

So, all in all, Tim and I have learned that we can handle a squall, we know that running with bad weather will be our best bet, and sometimes 'looking for dolphins' is the best way to abate your seasickness.

HemiD visit and minor tropical storm

So, I got to go visit my dear HemiD, basically, I wanted some Special K time with my girl without a spouse on board constantly tearing it apart with the latest project.

So, I arrive, and I am overjoyed to see that she is great since her last visit in July.

I go down below.  Doesn't smell musty. YES!

Now, did the spouse do his hurricane prep projects correctly?  Seacocks closed. Yes. Hatches taped down, NO.  Canvas removed..Yes.  Dock box emptied. NO.

Then my favorite:  The freezer was turned off, but left closed.  The fridge was left on.  So I had the mildew experiment and the solid block of ice situations going on. Great.

Bleach?  Check.

Hair Dryer? Nope. Took it away. Why would I need it in Florida. (Dumbass decision, I wound up buying one the next day--not for fridge dethaw, for hair drying)

So I got the units thawed and de-mildewed and dried and restarted for when we MAYBE show up next week.

So, Saturday morning of my 48 hour trip.  It's raining, but no problem, I find my new most favorite shopping area in the world, a fully enclosed place with a Target, Bed Bath Beyond, Best Buy and food court.  Seeing everything I was looking for was in Target or B3, I was in heaven.

That's good, because the heavens thus opened up. And it started raining. Hard. Really hard.

So, after picking up my crap and waiting for the first break, I begin my mile trip home.  ONE. MILE.

And I learned a lot:

1. Miamians get cranky when you take away their sun.  
2. A rental car will float.
3. Porsches should not take corners at 30 mph in 4 inches of water.
4. After what seemed like 6 inches rain in one hour, Coconut Grove becomes a canal city. No roads, just water.

So, I get back to the boat, and I was blessed with a lull in the weather, but I could see a big hairy storm starting up again.  I quickly got everything thrown on the boat and down below just before all hell broke loose again.

And this time, the rain brought its friend the wind. And for the rest of the day it was 30-40 KT winds and torrential rain.

But I didn't care, boat to clean, food, wine. I'm good.

However, here's a small pictorial:

The flotsam on the left is the remnant of where the water had flooded up to.

This is usually flat as glass.  It looked like a pot boiling.

Boat Projects..ALMOST complete

I went up to the lake to test fit the bimini.

And the wind, it was a-blowing.

And the air...it was dry.

The spouse...was out of town.

So with much cussing and electrocution by static electricity, I got it on.  And was surprisingly impressed on how well it fit.

Except the new aft braces rapid caught and pulled out my binding (not really their fault) and things weren't really lined up like they should.

Some adjustments here/there and a new pedestal cover, we almost there.

A week later, the spouse comes for his review.  Except for a few attempts at murder by winch handle, I took his comments well. 

We both came to an agreement (NO, REALLY) on how we could make it look a bit better.

However, and let me remind you all this, this is my first attempt at my own bimini. My own patterning, my own design, etc etc etc.

And I shall sit here in my own smugness.

SewYoga with Special K

As has been noted, I've been working on a few sail loft projects.

What hasn't been fully explained is the new form of yoga/pilates that I have developed in said projects.

The following move is what I best describe as the Bimini Butt Kick.  

1. First, place yourself in front of your machine.
2. Take your left leg and wrap it under your right leg and reach around so that you are touching your butt with your heel.
3. Take right leg and crank it up until your knee is around your ear.
4. Place right foot on foot control
5. Place left hand on fabric to guide.
6. Go for it.

Be careful because the following will happen:

1. You will get sudden horrible cramps in your hip flexor and/or arch of your foot.
2. Your ass will lose all feeling.
3. You suddenly realize your age when you go to unfold yourself and realize.....you can't.
4. (for pet owners)  You go in full Mario Andretti mode when your dog decides to try out her high pitched crazy bark because she just saw a squirrel out the window.  This is followed usually by the foot cramp, and you'll have to remove the foot control from under your foot with your hand.

So, you know you want a visual, here it is:

Twister ala Sailrite

All in all, the funny joke is:  when you have a big project and you work from the floor (not sure that's advised) you wind up doing a lot of squats, pec work and triceps work.  Didn't realize sewing would be my new work out plan.

Okay, I lie, I never had a workout plan.

Mal de Mar

..the throwing up thing is all controlled by the inner ear, you've got three little bones in your inner ear, and they are called Shadrach, Meshach and Abed Nego.  They control hearing and vomiting, it must be one of God's little jokes.
"Inner Ear, you shall have hearing and vomiting as well."
Inner Ear: "No, no, no, not us, surely stomach--stomach and vomiting."
"No, you. I think it'll be fun..."

--Eddie Izzard, Glorious

People are often surprised when they find out that I suffer from massive motion sickness. The main question I get asked is: Then how can you sail?

Well, having severe motion sickness and being able to do something you love does not have to be mutually exclusive. It, like most things when you are on a boat, takes some preparation and planning.

First off—if you have a tendency to get seasick, you will know it. In my case, I get motion sick with EVERYTHING, always have. Even movies can send me over the edge and more than once I had to leave a theatre so I wouldn’t puke in my spouse’s popcorn.

Understand that you have a motion sickness issue and plan accordingly. Make sure you have the proper medications/patches/wrist bands ready to go.

Prepare your crewmates, make sure they know that at any moment you may be heaved over the side feeding the fish. Also, if you are the type of person who can get vertigo when motion sickness, make sure your crew mates know to immediately take over the wheel if you ask them to. I tend to get vertigo when we round up in HemiD, part of the reason is the high freeboard she has. Patriot doesn’t seem to be such a problem.

If you are on long haul trips, make sure you know what works for you and how it will affect your ability to take watch. I use a mixture of the lowest dose of medicine and my acupressure wrist bands. Too much medication and I’ll be groggy and/or asleep. It may not keep nausea completely at bay, but it does control it enough that I can perform my crew member functions.

In the case you do get violently ill, your crewmates will have to understand that the ability to function is not there at that time. Try to get yourself comfortable and stabilized and do not focus on how bad you are feeling. I heard from a fellow boater that when they go out to blue water, they have a plan that for the first 12 hours or so, she is completely out of commission and then she regains her equilibrium and is fine. They just plan for that.

Here’s some tips that I have acquired to help alleviate the joys of sea sickness.

Take your meds early. Also, pay attention what you take and how much, you might be surprised that you don’t need as much as you think, or you can taper off after a few days on the water. Watch your reaction to your meds, remember you want to be able to enjoy yourself, but not be so groggy you cannot perform your duties as required.

Be open minded to alternative means of seasickness prevention. Some people swear by this oil you can put behind your ears, I’ve never tried it. The acupressure wristbands seem to be helping me immensely because with them I only have to take one pill a day.

Get behind the wheel as soon as you can. We figured out one of the quickest ways to get me sick was for Tim to be getting us out of the marina while I played deck monkey stowing fenders/lines, etc. Now, Tim gets us out of the slip, and I motor us out of the marina while he stows stuff. I can start getting that motion of the ocean going.

Do not get into the seasickness trance, I don’t know how many times I get fixated on the bow of the boat bobbing up and down through the waves. Get your eyes up on the horizon, don’t watch the damn bow of the boat. Look for landmarks if you are close by or buoys if you are not and focus on a distant focal point. It really helps keep you balanced.

The night before you are doing a long sail, you might want to take into consideration any alcohol consumption. The last thing you want is hangover, dehydration and seasickness. Make sure you keep hydrated, we keep G2 packets on board for instant Gatorade.

When the inevitable curdling starts in your gut, try not to panic about it. I usually have my spouse watch the helm, grab some ginger ale, a few plain club crackers and I take a Pepcid. Seriously, Pepcid really helps that feeling.

Eat small bits of food during the day, don’t tax your system if you are feeling ill. I graze on trail mix, sometimes some meat/cheese rollups.

Get your rest, being tired makes you less able to deal with discomfort.

For those who get the honor of travelling with us seasick folks, here’s some advice.
Don’t treat us like we are invalids—your heart may be in the right place, but it’s the last thing we need.

PLEASE don’t ask every 20 minutes, how are you feeling, are you okay? The whole point of not getting seasick is not thinking about it.

If we do get very sick, watch out for us, make sure we don’t go overboard while heaving our guts out. Help us get our food/meds/water whatever so we don’t have to move around the boat too much.

Remember—there may be a time when you get seasick.

Also, if you are anchor, or on a mooring, and feel ill, get in the water if you are able to. That actually can get the feeling abated in a hurry. Or maybe it’s the cold water, who knows.

And also don't be surprised if things that SHOULD help alleviate the symptoms will make you worse.  Many people swear by ginger gum and GinGin candies, the taste is too strong for me will make my symptoms worse. Remember to figure out what works for you.

If you have been on the boat for several days, don’t be surprised if you find yourself getting seasick in your own bed at home. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to take Dramamine for the s/s Serta.

Most of all, remember that motion sickness and being able to go cruising are not mutually exclusive.  It just takes a different sort of preparation.