7 days at sea
Last year, in September, I found myself in Gran Canaria, living onboard a beautiful little sailing boat, docked in port, awaiting a change in the weather, to make the crossing from the Canary Islands to a group of African Islands called Cape Verde.
I had found this little crew on a sailboat hitchhikers Facebook page, where the Captain and first mate were looking for 4 people to join them to experience the beauty of sailing and help them make their journey. After the current crew left them in Cape Verde, they would continue onwards across the Atlantic with a new crew.
This was the first time I had ever tried sailing, and I had high expectations, after daydreaming for months about dreamy, beautiful boat life. Before I had begun, I had started fantasising about sailing across the world, reaching New Zealand (my next long term destination) without getting on a single airplane. This dream was about the come crashing down…
After many stops and starts due to unexpected weather, finally, we were off! As we sailed off from the port, the sun beamed up ahead, and the wind blew across our faces, and everything felt pretty great… Although I felt a certain doubt in the back of my mind about the amount of alcohol I had drunk the previous night, I was already feeling a tad nauseous, and we had barely begun.
Fast forward 10 hours, and I was curled up in the foetus position in the corner of the cockpit, barely able to speak. The next 3 days were hell. Every 6 hours, I barely managed to swallow a seasickness pill before my next bout of retching took hold of me. I couldn’t eat, I barely managed to swallow water, and I was so incapacitated that even brushing my teeth was a feat too great for me to accomplish.
On day 3, the first mate made me some water mixed with electrolyte powder, and I was just about well enough to slowly sip the whole thing, and feed myself small pieces of pasta. She expressed relief about me being able to finally speak again and was very sympathetic. Thank goodness we had 6 other crew members to help the boat keep it’s course.
Although I never felt quite that rough again, the next 4 days were still an enormous challenge. My nausea stayed with me the entire trip, with random brief periods of respite. I genuinely spent much of the time lying in my bed crying, wishing for it to be over.
It wasn’t all bad though!
Over the next few days I was finally able to make a meal for the crew, and eat what others made! We washed up our plates on deck using the sea water, and dunked buckets in the ocean to pour over ourselves for showers!
I found singing whilst looking out to sea very soothing, and I was thankful that when the dolphins came out to play I was able to take my mind off the sickness and be joyful for the beautiful sight! We caught a fat tuna (or similar lookalike) and indulged in this, and laughed at the millions of flying fish that jumped and skimmed out of the way of our sailing hull, sometimes ending up on deck! All the while I carried my sick bucket with me…
I had been looking forward to enjoying the beautiful sunrises on the boat, however it turned out that because we were off the coast of West Africa, on the horizon the whole sun was covered in a haze of dusty sand from the Sahara! This means we couldn’t actually see the sun until it was much higher in the sky, and the boat was draped in a thin veil of dust at all times.
On the 6th day, we noticed many insects joining us on the boat, and I became excited at the near prospect of land! We joked that I would be jumping off the boat to swim to land the moment I caught sight of it. On our last evening of the journey, a tiny little bird joined us on deck, and was clearly enjoying the respite from the blustery winds of that afternoon. As the winds continued to pick up, it even decided to take it a step further and fly into the cabin and curl up for the night! What a lovely companion for the last leg of our journey. As the sun rose in the sky the next morning, the little bird stretched it’s wings and flitted out the door, onto it’s next destination, surely thanking us for our hospitality!
I felt a great relief when we spotted land, and then next day when I was walking steadily on my feet I felt unbelievably grateful for the earth, for my legs, the sky and all of my surroundings… Cape Verde is indeed a beautiful country and we explored much of it.. but that’s another story! For now though, I think my sailing plans have been put on the shelf… until I come up with a solid cure for my seasickness.
