Good Fun That Is Funny

Time: 2021/07/23 03:39:46
Latitude: 53-51.00N
Longitude: 157-30.04W
Speed: 5.0
Course: 51T
Wind_Speed: 21
Wind_Dir: WNW
Barometer: 1010
Clouds: 30%
Visibility: 10
Air_Temp: 12C
Wave_Ht: 2M
Comment: Waves from multiple directions with relatively short period is making for a bumpy ride, but we are heading the right direction at a decent speed so we don't complain too much. The sun and blue sky made an appearance through most of the day and is still up which improves spirits. Amazing what 10 days of oppresive fog and visibility under 1 mille will do to your mood. Just over 300 miles to go.


The fun on board Maple just keeps getting better. And yes, it is still not as fun as getting a hole in our bow, I do concede that we have friends who have won top prize for that level of fun. However, today for the crew of Maple we had our own kind of fun.

I am trying to figure out what is the appropriate amount of back story, so bare with me. Yesterday during my 6pm to 9pm watch, I noticed that there was something streaming off the port stern, parallel to our tow generator line. Huh?! What is that!? Upon closer inspection I discovered we were dragging a long root of kelp that was clearly wedged between the hull and top of the rudder. Right, of course. This giant ocean and we managed to snag kelp 400 miles from land. Can someone calculate the probability of that happening? I feel like I should be buying a lottery ticket to be that lucky. I tried half-heartedly to get it off using the gaff with no success in dislodging it. So when D got up for his shift, he of course easily removed it and the girls were quite excited to check it out up close. They have no memory of seeing kelp before, although I am certain they did at some point on the beaches in BC. Anyway, there is no chance we could be this lucky twice is there?!

As an aside, which I promise is relevant, when we were in Honolulu spending what was left of our life savings, I suggested to D we might want to consider buying new life jackets to replace our very tired ones. He figured it was not necessary yet and so we walked away from spending an additional $500. Well wouldn't you know it, a few days ago D's life jacket broke and is no longer functional to auto-inflate. Ok, no worries. We have two other auto-inflating jackets we had bought for Jeff and Sandra when they joined us for our Atlantic crossing. We had been graduating the girls to those ones but Iris still has her old jacket so if D uses one we still have enough life jackets for everyone. An easy fix for once, life is good...until this morning.

It seems the most fun we like to have is in the morning when this crew member is still sleeping. Such as the spinnaker losing its head. Well this morning was truly my worst nightmare. I woke up to the most terrifying, screeching of alarms. There is only one thing that makes that sound. Yup, the man over board (MOB) alarm was going off. (Insert all possible profanity here.) D and I have individual MOB devices attached to our life jackets. So if one of us falls in the water, the life jacket inflates triggering the MOB, which activates an emergency AIS signal on our chart plotter so we can see exactly where they are, and to ensure immediate action can be taken, it sets off the most horrendous of alarms.

I obviously come tearing out of bed, up the stairs to be greeted at the companionway door to the sight of D standing there getting strangled by his fully inflated life jacket. With no ability to move his head and the life jacket obscuring all peripheral vision, he could not figure out how to deflate the jacket or undo it. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out how to silence the blaring alarm. Needless to say it was a bit of a gong show, but thankfully no man overboard procedures were actually required. D said he briefly had the image of the scene of Chris Farley struggling to put on a little jacket from the movie, Tommy Boy, flash through his mind. Once the alarm was cleared, D extricated from the life jacket and my blood pressure had returned to its normal level, we are all now regretting not stopping a moment in the frenzy to take a picture of D with a life jacket wrapped firmly around his head. It is a memory I will not soon forget.

Now what caused all of this excitement?! Well it turns out that we can be lucky twice. A second kelp root had wedged itself on the starboard rudder this time. And while D, tethered to the boat of course, was trying to clear this second entangled kelp, he got swamped by one of the monster waves we have had the pleasure of riding out for the last 24 hours. Apparently it was enough water for the life jacket to feel it warranted setting itself off while D was still safely on deck. So now in a matter of days, we are down a second life jacket for our crew of four and as such we had to dig out of the front locker one of those awesome, old school PFDs for one of us to use in case of an emergency. With around 300+ miles to go, it is finally starting to feel like we might see the end to this passage, but perhaps like The Cat in the Hat, we will find more "good fun that is funny" before we make landfall.