Ah, Yachting

Oh, excuse me Cabin boy! May I please have another aperitif with my caviar? Shall we sup on the foredeck this evening? Mmm… Quite. Rather. Ho hum. Splendid. Yes, you think, this is the world we live in, one of decadence, ease, lollipops and gumdrops.

Except not. Well, not at least this week. Not as we beat North West up the coast of Brazil. Our route around the world is largely dictated by weather, and by weather, we really mean wind. Where can we sail with the least amount of effort and stress, greatest amount of ease and comfort. That, friends is from east to west, mostly between 20 degrees South and 20 degrees North, in the Trade Winds. If you’ve been following our path lately, you’ll know that recently we crossed from the Southern Hemisphere into the Northern Hemisphere. Wooo whoo!!! Yup, another milestone. So with that crossing, we also entered the Northern Hemispheres trade winds, aka the North East trades. Funnily enough, these apt named winds generally blow from the North East through to East. Well, as luck would have it this week atmospheric forces aligned such that they were shifted more to the North than East… what does that mean for the good ship Khulula and her hearty crew? Well, it means our course is an awful lot like beating.

Beating you say? What’s that like? Well, let me take you aboard the yacht Khulula, describing how it has been for the past five days.

Firstly, you’ll need to have an understanding of how big the area that we live in is. Take a look to your right 2m, that’s a little more than two arm lengths. Note the spot. Do the same to your left. Got it? That’s how wide the boat is. Luckily she’s a bit longer than wide. But the living space certainly doesn’t occupy the entire length. Note a spot 4m a head of you, and 4m behind you. Right, that’s about the length of the living space inside when we’re underway. Oh, and that includes the toilet too. Now cap it off with a roof 2m high… at most. Its actually much lower when you pack in a few benches, lockers, shelves and cupboards. Oh, and 7 surfboards, 4 spare sails, 3 tool kits, 1 djembe drum, a liferaft, food for a month, an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (don’t ask me), a substantial library, 300 L of water, and 4 peoples clothing in various states of dampness and cleanliness.

Ok, so you’ve got a visual on the living area. Now, tilt the whole thing over between 20 and 30 degrees to the left. But wait, there’s a pretty big swell running too. Hmmm… how to simulate that? Well, put your tilted box on a hobby horse with uneven legs and start it rocking. Randomly. Constantly. 24 hours a day.

We’re only a couple of hundred kilometers from the equator, so its hot inside your box. How hot? Turn the thermostat up to 30 degrees Celsius (ok, only 29 at night) and crank the humidity to 75%. Commence the sweating.

Sure, you can escape to the cockpit, where every 5 minutes someone sprays you with saltwater from a garden hose while the equatorial sun cooks your skin to a crisp. So while you peruse the photo gallery of the tropical spots we’ve visited, remember its not all lollipops and gum drops.

Ah, yachting, it is so glamorous.

Let me end this with a special note about the two crew that unwittingly joined us for this passage. Shayla Hall and Wendy Innes, two friends from BC, stepped up to our challenge of a trip on Khulula. They joined us in Forteleza totally green, with only a few days of sailing experience between them. To say they’re fast learners is a understatement. Since starting out 5 days ago they’ve both battled seasickness and the uncomfortable conditions fantastically, all the while performing small miracles in the galley and learning enough to sit their own night shifts. Hey ladies, please don’t let on how soft we are!