The Storm Is Catching Up with Us. Captain’s Log

5.02 “The sea surges through the leeward scuppers (openings for draining water) with almost every wave. We’re making 8 knots on a port-tack beam reach under a reefed mainsail, main staysail and fore staysail. Spray from the beam sea striking the hull periodically flies across the deck and superstructure. Snow flurries pass overhead. ❄ I go up to the bridge. By the end of a watch, the slit between the watchkeeper’s eyelids is directly proportional to the time remaining on watch. Dan looks me over and pronounces: put your boots on. I already went out; now it’s your turn. Inside, we wear Crocs, but when going out onto a deck awash with waves, you want to put on foul-weather gear and boots. There are two kinds of boots: 1. the conventional kind—rubber boots together with foul-weather gear; 2. quick boots. For quick boots, you take off your socks, keep your Crocs on and roll your trousers up to your knees. The water in the 50s latitudes is hardly bathwater, but a couple of minutes on deck almost barefoot won’t kill feet accustomed to fording mountain rivers. After all, every time you hope that this time the wave won’t come across the deck. This time, I choose the warm version: boots together with foul-weather gear. Our cook has also expressed a desire to take a stroll, so we put on our safety harnesses and go out on deck. Seryoga, meanwhile, is wearing the simplified version: boots + shorts. There’s no shortage of warmth in the galley, so he comes out to cool off. Our task is to haul in the tackle (the so-called high-load line) on the mainsail peak halyard. We need to take the excessive twist out of the sail (so that it doesn’t spill wind) and keep the gaff from falling off so far to leeward. Having successfully hauled the line in, we return to the wheelhouse, though not before catching a wave that came across the deck roughly knee-deep. Seryoga has cooled off, while my old foul-weather gear, treated three times with Australian water-repellent proofing, is holding up for now. Another three or four such washings, and it will resist moisture about as well as jeans. The proofing washes off. It’s long past time to replace the outfit, which costs roughly as much as the mainsail on Lady Mary. ⛵ Dan heads off and I take over the watch. We alternate every 6 hours. My watches are from 10 to 4. We’re used to it by now. Semyonych is in a mood today and demands attention every 20 minutes. Still, he steers us through practically every wave, occasionally grumbling at the gusts. Besides keeping an eye on the autopilot, I monitor the radar—ice is a real danger at these latitudes. Apart from icebergs, which show up clearly on radar even from 20 miles away, there are also chunks of ice that have broken off larger icebergs. Dan saw one on his watch, half the size of our ship and rising only about a metre and a half above the water. Objects like that are barely discernible on the radar screen. You have to get clever with the resolution and sensitivity settings. There’s no time to be bored. Today’s bridge music is retro—C.C. Catch, Joy and Gazebo. Seryoga has brought me my thermos, the remains of last night’s pizza and a couple of slices of chocolate cake. I’ll stop writing here: the saliva gathering in my mouth is interfering with the flight of thought. Talk soon!” ⛵ Other news Since I, the chief mate, am now acting as shore-based operations HQ, I’ll finish the captain’s log for today and give you a news update from ashore: Lady Mary misses us, but repairs continue in the Philippines thanks to our friend Artyom Kozlov. 📖 The book is on the home straight! I’m working like a horse 😄. Look out for a beautiful gift edition packed with adventure this spring! Overwhelmed by the number of requests from people wanting to wear Travely-Family club team T-shirts, the website has taken to its bed. It looks as though we’ll be changing providers. As soon as everything comes back to life, I’ll let you know, friends! 💙 And we would very much like to thank Sergey M., who supported the expedition fund via PayPal.Me/andreyklochkov and Viktor E., who sent us his regards a week ago at sobe.ru/na/travelyfamily. Thanks to you, Lady Mary is getting ever closer to having new sails. Hugs from the whole team!”