Monday, January 15, 2007

South Edisto River, SC, to Jekyll Island, GA

128.6 nm
Wind: SE 5-10 knots
Seas: Three feet
Maximum speed: 6.1 knots
Maximum speed under sail: 5.7 knots
Average speed: 4.2 knots
Latitude: 31°02.51’N
Longitude: 081°25.55’W

We’ve made it to Georgia--another state down, and Florida beckons only thirty miles away. I’m sipping hot chocolate, savoring the hazy drone of a night lived mostly without sleep.

I had two five-hour off-watches yesterday, and I probably had four hours of sleep between the two of them, which stinks for Karl as well as for me. He sleeps better than I do at sea but he still shouldn’t have left me to sleep that long. I lie there, convinced I’m going to fall asleep in the next five minutes, but my mind is too busy with everything going on in the boat, the noise, the wind, the waves.

I’m convinced I’ll get the hang of it, though. One’s body gets used to anything, if one forces it too. I always sleep better in my second shift off from sheer exhaustion. But Karl’s a little worried that I’m not cut out for this kind of thing after listening to my stories of hearing voices over my shoulder at three in the morning.

It’s a great feeling, though, the day after. We got in today at around two and had four hours of balmy zoned-out sitting in the seventy-degree sun. The day after we sail overnight is the like the day after you pull an all-nighter for a college exam. The whole world’s colors seem brigher, the edges a little fuzzier, everything a lot dreamier. Sleep deprivation is fun.

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