Day 31: White gold
PS. if you only read this post and don’t click through to the link, you are missing out on half of the story.
It’s odd to say, but I am enjoying the rain squalls. Long dark shapes appear on the horizon and slowly float towards you like a dark ghost with its black train being dragged across the water. As it starts to pass over, the wind gets a little angrier, and then the rain starts to sting my back. I probably get four or five a day. They cool everything down for a while, making paddling far more pleasant than in the beating sun. There never seems to be enough rain to shower, so I guess that’s why on a sailing boat, we would stand under the main sails and wash under the water running off them.
My prison calendar is coming along nicely. Thirty-one stripes in groups of five representing my time out here in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s double the time spent on the first attempt, the one where I ended up in Walvis Bay.
I guess that must be a record on its own. The first person to kayak from Cape Town to Walvis Bay. 🤣
My days at sea calendar
As I approach the halfway mark, I am taking stock of food and gear to make sure I don’t run out of anything.
Before leaving, I did technical research on how much gas I would use to boil water, etc., and then added a margin for safety. Ultimately, I took ten eight 500g gas canisters on board. To date, I have not finished any. 🙃 I guess that’s definitely an over cater!
The rice and couscous I cooked and dehydrated at home went into big square plastic bottles. If I recall, I prepared 6kg of rice and 2kg of couscous. Each bottle takes 2kg of cooked and dehydrated food. I have almost finished one rice bottle(2kg), leaving 4kg, so that’s another over-cater!
The end of the first container of rice. Two more to go
“White gold”
I packed 12 rolls of toilet paper, each individually sealed into a Ziplock bag. I have used six, so it looks like the exact amount was packed, but I must remember there is nothing spare.
White Gold. Only the best. Two ply. Each individual wrapped in a Ziplock bag
This reminds me again of that trip back from Rio with my brother, Anton, on Argonaut. Being only boys on board, it did not cross our minds to buy any loo paper.😬
Instead, I lashed a toilet seat to the transom ladder. I rigged up a pully system so you could lower it into place to drop the kids off. Once the deed is done, you lowered it further down and let the speed of the boat and water wash the toosh clean.
All the while having this magnificent view of the yacht ⛵ and its sails in front of you. One thing about this method is it soon became apparent that we were moving further South as the water temperature slowly dropped to single digits. 🤪
My sprouting (mung) beans have run out. The latest food bag did not have any inside, so I desperately unpacked two more bags, but alas, they also had none. I think I will have to check the others tomorrow because having fresh sprouts is a wonderful treat, and I would hate for that to end, which would lead me to eat more energy bars.
My bottom rash has thankfully stayed away, but I have noticed the start of “crotch rot”. Not to worry, I won’t post a picture this time!
It is not from the salt or chaff but from the heat and humidity. The air temperature rarely gets below 25° because the water temperature is almost the same.
More special cream and fresh air will stop it in its tracks. Hope not to 🌞 burn anything while doing the fresh air bit.🙃
At least there is a category for my age
The calmer conditions make cooking scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast much less challenging. I still think it’s unbelievable that this is possible on a kayak crossing the ocean.
The clouds cleared for a few hours last night, and I spent some time star gazing. Zero light pollution out here. I switched all my NAV lights off and stared at the heavens. I saw two satellites and tried to identify as many constellations as possible using an app on my phone. ⭐📱
I let my mind wander and eventually realised that we are so small and insignificant compared to the universe. We, however, still live our lives like the ancients that believed the earth was the centre of the universe. We believe each one of us is the most important and the centre of everything. If we changed this thinking, what would happen, I wonder?🧠🕊
Co-ordinate: Latitude -19.811570°
Longitude -9.078800°
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