Mel Tries to Appease the Sea Gods With Her Brilliant Prose

Mel has decided that Calamity is an Atlantic Sea Goddess. She is apparently quite flighty, visiting us on her whim. After causing an explosion yesterday, she has decided to lay off of us for a while. At the moment, she is apparently busy pestering our friends in ZigZag, who are currently resting in 6-9 ft seas with their Paranchor out while they make repairs. Upset by this, Mel will attempt to assist them by writing an appeal to Calamity. Mel hopes Calamity has internet.

Dear Calamity,

I hope you are well. I apologize for whatever it is we did to attract you to our boat. I apparently sacrificed my best wool sock to you the other day, and you may find it at the bottom of the ocean. Or whatever thermocline in the ocean wool socks settle. I hope you like it. It was a really nice sock.

I want to thank you for providing us an adventure. What is an adventure? I can tell you what it’s not. If nothing goes wrong, it’s not an adventure. If all mishaps can be completely prevented with good planning and experience, it’s not an adventure. If you are not ever scared, it’s not an adventure. Of course, if you die doing it, it’s not an adventure. It’s just a stupid thing you did.

With that said, please know that the Burnetts (and probably our friends in ZigZag) are nerds, and as such, have a limited desire for adventure. After a while, it’s just not practical too have too much. It can get expensive. So, and I mean this in the nicest way, thanks so much for this experience, and you can go away now.

Sincerely, Mel

Boat stuff: 177 nm in 24 hours. This morning some showers moved through and shifted the wind to be right up our stern (that is the “boat butt” for non-sailors.) We had a choice to either go way off course and sail with main and jib and then gibe at some point (the salty way), stay on course with motors only (the “get this over with” way), or motorsail a little off course with jib only (the more fuel efficient way to get-er-done). We chose the latter because it also allows us to turn the 6-9 foot seas into more of a directly following sea, which has really calmed the boat down. Mel highly recommends occasional motoring or motorsailing in a direction to cooperate with the waves as a way to rest a little bit on these long trips. With the main down, our main and reefing lines get a rest too. Our Yanmar engines have just been the best! We are very happy we bought those fuel bladders. With it calmer, Greg is running around the boat filing down slightly bumpy pieces of metal to minimize chafe. Wind should die later on.