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We FINALLY left Newport 2 days after it snowed in Boston. When I say snow, I mean big F$%K OFF snowflakes. I was there with Adam and 2 friends of ours attempting our luck at staying warm at a patriots snow game. We tried everything from eating excessively to drinking hotchocolate-- it was really good hot chocolate too. We did not pass go, we did not collect $200. But we did leave early.
I...AM...not...CANADIAN!
At 0900 sharp on the 20th of October, we left the dock at the shipyard to head to a much warmer shipyard in Freeport, Bahamas. It just so happens that Adam and I have already been there just a few months ago on Intuition II, so we’ll know our way around the local watering holes—the only and the most important form of entertainment they seem to have in Freeport. Hello frozen drink so neatly packed in a coconut! They should put that on the brochure, and "ONLY $8.00!"!!
The boat we’re currently on; Athena is a sailboat. A BIG one. I’m not quite used to sailboats that motor and I expected the rolling to be far worse than it has been. But So far in the beginning, it seemed to be the most stable boat I’ve been on…so far... We don’t pitch much, but we roll ever so slightly, but not enough to make anyone seasick…yet (Thank God).
The 1st night, I had the best sleep imaginable. I think I could have been sleeping on a cardboard box with the homeless person in it and it would have been an extreme pleasure. As well as an interesting introduction.
I can only imagine that feeling is reminiscent of being in your mother’s womb; the continuous, dull ‘womp, womp, womp’ of the engines below beating like a heart—or maybe it’s something else in the boat, but I’m no mechanic.
That practically puts you to sleep alone, but along with the slow rocking it’s better than a good dose of Ambien injected straight to the head...well, almost.
It’s no wonder I become sleepy everytime a boat’s engines start up.
After work, at about 13:45 (1:45), us girls ventured outside to bask in the slightly chilly sun. Hard to believe only one day’s cruise from Newport puts us from 8 degrees to 25 degrees.
We got to sit in the bow nets. I won’t lie: I was just a little afraid; Despite not being strapped onto the boat, we were willingly suspending ourselves above the passing water in nothing but a net that, if I happened to slip through, I would easily fall through up to my knees. We were like lazy trapeze artists with a twist.
It was exciting and even more so when Kay ‘dolphin whispered’ us a school of dolphins.
We saw them a few yards off jumping and breaching in the water. After just a couple minutes, they swam straight towards us. We were cheering and beckoning them to come closer. Then they started chasing the bow of the boat-- Right beneath my ass in the net! I laced my fingers through the net and balanced my knees on the knots and gazed through at the sheen of water on their grey backs. I could have looked straight into their blowholes, but some how that seems almost a little perverted.
I have never had such a dolphin experience! And doubt any other will compare. It was amazing to look through the net and see the dolphins just under the surface, racing with each other and keeping up with the boat. They played in the spray of water coming off the bow and breaking the surface. There must have been 6 of them dodging each other and passing back and forth from each side of the boat. After a few exciting minutes, they disappeared into the waves that were breaking off the boat. We never saw them again. *tear*.
Unfortunately the next day was an extremists meaning of the word “rocky”. Lets say you’re chillin’ in your mother’s womb enjoying the womp, womp, womp of her heart. She decides that she wants to jog, then over a couple more hours, she’s full on sprinting a 24 hour marathon and jumping over hurdles at a regular pace.
Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling too great when I woke up the next morning. My seasickness was accompanied by a feeling that I’ve never felt before. The only thing I could deduce was that it was a case of acid reflux caused by the combination of stuffed salmon, cake and trail mix the night before. The previous Womp that was so musical to my ears became a dull, head-ache inducing, nauseous thump that was highlighted with the bow of the boat (where our cabin is) slamming down onto the water after it pitched.
I seemed to be the only one struck with either of these conditions so I knew I had to at least try to work. But in the 1st hour, I had already visited the toilet 3 times and went to sit outside to get fresh air every 20 minutes.
In between trying to feel better, I would return back into the nauseous sweat-box known as the laundry room on any other day and I may have been able to get a shirt or 2 ironed.
I was sent to bed at 11am and didn’t re-surface until 4:30pm. This is when I decided to make a run for the crew mess: the least rocky/noisy spot on the boat (accessible to crew).
As I was lying there, deep breathing like I was in labour: in through the nose, out through the mouth. I pulled a pair of acceptable looking pants on—- as exciting as it would have been to see the look on the faces of people I’ve known a mere 2 months when I rocked up to the crew mess in a pair of tiny girl-boxers and a tank top, that would have been inappropriate-—I grabbed an apple that I had beside my bed (the first thing I was hoping to eat and keep down all day),I clutched my throw blanket, counted down from 3 while still doing my Lamaze-like breaths and jumped up from bed, ran—or more like stumbled quickly to the crew mess and planted myself on the seat until further notice. I managed to eat dinner, help clean up, watch a film (Gray Gardens, encase you wondered) and go to bed.
We woke up on the day of arrival to the same conditions, but I think my inner-ear surrendered to the motion of the ocean, threw in the towel and allowed me to work the rest of the day when I stopped at Beer-O’clock when everyone had a refreshing cocktail on the dock before going for a night on the town in Port Lacaya. We followed this with a day off at the beach and the Raddisson Hotel pool sipping cocktails and getting a mild form of skin cancer-- a tan.
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