[la mar salada]

Me parece adivinar una lagrimilla en el siempre alegre rostro de Sam...

ha de ser muy duro estar por allí

Hello there everyone!

Well, whilst you are all comfy in front of the fire (or bbq for those down under) eating chocolates, singing carols, drinking mulled wine, I will explain a bit of my day on Roxy today.

We are reaching (side on to the wind) with 25knots of wind and a bumpy sea. That makes doing anything pretty much impossible, as if you were living on a roller-coaster. Changing or trimming a sail requires me to be in full drysuit, which is easier said than done. Try putting a dry suit on when you are on dry land you will see... Then tilt the land to 30 degrees, make the floor wet (so if you put that foot down before it is in the drysuit your sock gets wet). Put a blindfold on. Then start the roller-coaster! The roller-coaster doesn't stop when the sail is done - so the reverse process of removing (now very wet) drysuit and hanging it up to dry has to be done.

Just earlier, I noticed a big bulge in the reef of my mainsail. There was a fold of sail that had been collecting water and it was fully loaded up, which is not at all good for the sail. I quickly got dressed up and went outside to see what I could do. I tried everything, luffing up, bearing away, as it was too windy to shake the reef. Nothing would get rid of the bulge.

I then bore away, got a bucket, and got in there and bailed it out! 10 buckets - so at least 100kg of water in my sail. I re-adjusted the lazyjacks and got going again..... only to see that the bulge was back! So in the end I got a knife and pierced some holes in it so it would drain. I'm hoping my drain-holes will keep it at bay

Once going again, I got totally DRENCHED - I had only my dry top on as I had got dressed in a rush. Wet hair, Yuk! So I bit the bullet, got out my shampoo, and tried to get a positive side out of the situation. The trouble is, although I have lovely clean hair, the water is SO cold that I have got ice-cream head now.

So that is a little snippet of life on board Roxy rollercoaster today. Doing anything else is just too dangerous as she is jumping around so much. I am sitting in my sleeping bag, watching the Albatross circle around the boat through my porthole, and the waves come crashing over the deck into the cockpit. A little bit of music, reading, sleeping, as the miles tick by towards Cape Horn.

I opened my Christmas dinner package today. My boyfriend Romain has prepared a super meal for me - a delicious fish soup, with rouille and croutons! Yummy. I can't wait. The only thing is that I think it is almost impossible to eat soup in these conditions! I might have to postpone my Christmas dinner to when its calmed down a bit, otherwise I will be wearing more of it than eating it!

Entre otras cosas dice que está en su saco de dormir leyendo y escuchando música, ya que como parece que está en una montaña rusa, es muy peligroso hacer otra cosa. Ha tenido que quitar a base de agujerear la mayor con un cuchillo la bolsa de agua que se había creado en los pliegues sobre la botavara. Y como en esas condiciones prima un gran premio (esto me ensañado una buena amiga que es necesario y una buena meta) también ha abierto la cena de navidad que le preparó su novio, aunque duda que en esas condiciones de mar pueda comer la sopa de pescado. Pero eso si, como se ha mojado el pelo, se lo ha lavado con champú a pesar de estar el agua helada… A esta chica ni hay quien la pare, ni quien la encuentre sin arreglar. Creo que podría ser la imagen de cualquier salón de belleza.





Pero mientras, nosotros estaremos al calor de la lumbre, comiendo chocolate y cantando villancicos...