Waves, waves and more waves were on the program for today. Brian and Maks were on the RHIB and had a rough time riding some big rollers. On the positive side, the waves and wind pushed us in the right direction, east.
The waves were about 2.5 meters, evenly spaced out and all moving in the same direction. There were no bad surprises.
When I was swimming I couldn’t tell if I was at the bottom, on the upside, top or downside of the wave. The water pressure was evenly distributed throughout my body, I could not feel the gravity and was unable to tell if my head was higher or lower than my feet. For me, it always felt as if I was flat on the water. Also, I couldn’t tell when my body was rising with the wave or dropping with it. I didn’t have any point of reference, I had the same even blue background below me.
From time to time when one of the waves was a little steeper than usually or about to crest, I bodysurfed for few meters. I felt the forward pressure of the wave coming from the tip of my fins, then moving to my legs and the rest of my body. As soon as I felt it on my fins, I stretched my body as much as possible, extended one of my hand well above my shoulder on the surface of the water and tried to keep my body as flat as possible. Those moments were very unique, bodysurfing in the middle of the ocean!
Each time I took my food breaks this is when I realized how big the waves were. They were slamming the RHIB and Brian and Maks had to bail the water out.
The most dangerous moment was when at the end of the day, Maks took the dinghy to the stern of Seeker to hoist it on the davit. Everything had to be timed perfectly to make sure Seeker wasn’t going to crush Maks on the dinghy. Maks executed the maneuver perfectly and it was another successful day.
Ben
SINCE DAY 1: 688 NM, 233 hrs
MILES TO GO: 4,312
