March 21: Day 9

This refrigerator issue has gotten out of hand. Now that Brett and I have both consumed our fair share of toxic, contaminated food going into the frige has become an ordeal on par with helping to nurse a lepper. I really wish I had a gas mask. One whiff of that chemical smell and my head feels tight and my stomach lurches. Going into the frige has taken on its own routine:

1) Open all the windows to insure a good cross breeze

2) Get out the paper plate

3) Tie a towel around my face, cowboy style

4) Take a few deep breaths and get ready, visualize where in the frige I am going and formulate a plan of attack

5) Open frige and frantically wave plate to aggitate air and get toxic stench out of the frige

6) Remove food, if planned food can’t be found settle for whatever can be found and leave frige open for a minute to vent toxic fumes

7) Run topside to get a few deep breaths of clean air, must go to the upwind side of the boat

8) Run back down with breath held and slam the frige shut, quickly returning to cockpit and upwind side of the boat to allow the salon to empty of toxic stench

9) Return below to prepare food, taste test if neccessary. If food is contaminated revise meal plan and start back at 1.

Needless to say, with a procedure like that ahead of me any time I want to eat I have been leaning towards the non refrigerated items. Meals that are prepared and determined to not be contaminated are left out of the frige and put into what Brett has termed “The Rotting Bowl” for quick consumption or a trip over the rail if we do not get to them quickly enough. Deep Sigh.

The wind has been riding up our backsides now for two days. We need to go South-West and the wind is coming from the North-East. Sounds ideal, I know, but our boat is not a good downwind boat and we are fighting to maintain our direction. We can go West and then jibe South but the wind forces us to go North-West, we jibe to go South and the wind shifts until we are going South-East. We are suppposed to be in the trades, so far we have been trading the direction we want to go for the direction that the wind is forcing us in. Argh! I have been seeing less and less boobies, which is fine with me after the wind chicken and bird poop incident. I also have not seen another ship for five days. So all day long we watch the empty horizon, nothing. Occasionally we trim sail. I have been reading a lot: just finished Seven Deadly Wonders and Atlas Shrugged. We had our first sun in three days and had dolphins in the bow twice today. They are so beautiful. With the sun shining I can see that the sea is still that clear bright blue. We are over one third of the way there. We have traveled over one thousand miles and have seventeen hundred to go. If we can manage to go in the right direction.