lundi 21 septembre 2009

HORTA at 2100 120608



Here is a 20 to 30kt wind blowing straight down the harbor at us, and it is pouring (more like driving) rain. Been this way for hours, maybe days. For those of you that don’t feel it yet, it is like sticking your head out the window of a car cruising through a downpour. And there is a lot of pressure pushing us toward the rocks, pushing on the boats around us, pushing. And the wail of the wind in rigging. These boats are made to sail, to slice through the sea, these sailors are happy out there where they think they have there destiny in their own hands, active people, active boats. Imagine all this bottled up, helpless in a small space inactive, worrying about the shore lines that aren’t right, the anchor that could have been bigger, the fenders that keep slipping, and howl of the wind. This is no ordinary storm, it spins on the surface and climbs turning straight up into the sky. I have never seen a tight deep low tight on the surface and deep right up to the 500mb level - has its own private jet stream spinning around up there. One on top of the other means the system is stationary, which means its been there and there is more to come. I check it out every morning on the weather maps, sort of say hello to an old friend - and when are you going north, anyhow? And nuts like me keep the windex on so i have the wind speed flashing in my face. Looks like we’re here till Saturday because 35 to 40 kts out of the SE means more brutal then I’m willing to subject my crew and boat to. The predictions are for a turnaround tomorrow night. We are ready to go, but for the moment I wish I had put the bigger anchor out with the full chain, and how about another line to that steel sailing barge dockside, and it is leaking around the aft hatch... but Bob Dylan is ripping it on the CD, just came in from the cafe-bar after a couple of beers with sailing cronies (i hate beer but it sure is great when you should have put the other anchor out), off at 2100 for dinner of grilled squid, and Naomi is definitely the sexiest boat in the harbor even in the driving rain... so life is super even if a bit wet. The problem with the cronies is that they don’t seem to have any other existence other than sailing, and like anything else, it gets boring after a while. Turning the discussion around usually takes excessive effort and it usually doesn’t hold for very long. These guys seem to live outside of any political or social reality. They are living wild experiences all of them and they are all thrilled to the core. They have risked obliteration and usually broken a fair amount of material doing so. And this is what is on their minds - how to fix it, when is the low moving north, and when are you heading out? The guys are doing great. And yes we are all ready to be out there, and yes 4 guys living in 10 square meters gets a bit tight sometimes, but for the moment there have not been any explosions. The captain is all doing fine, but he also wants to get on with this, ‘cause there are a lot of very wonderful people he misses very much, and it is definitely time to on to other adventures with them xxxxxx p