The Burnetts are Frickin’ Close Hauled Again

We have been offshore for almost 48 hours now. We started out in 7-9 ft seas, which have calmed down to 5-7 at the moment, although we are approaching a squall. This calming means fewer opportunities to float 3 inches off of the ground when one uses the owners’ hull bathroom, which is in the bow. At 48 hours one knows exactly how one did with stowing things. Not so good. Right now our pots and pans drawer is under the saloon bed after it flew across the room. This isn’t such a bad place for it, since Mel makes dinner scooting around on her butt anyway. We now have velcro holding together several cabinets in the owners’ hull. Also, shammies are positioned to absorb the water that has collected around our washing machine and escape hatches. Shammies are awesome. The upside is that our seasickness has waned, but in no way is Mel “used to it.” You see, she has the skin of a redhead. This means that so far the only thing that has chafed from the repeated bashing is Mel. She is faced with a Sailing Conundrum: If I cover my whole body in vaseline to eliminate chafe, will I fly out of the helm seat?

Mel has heard there is an easier point of sail called a “broad reach.” The Burnetts supposedly experienced this after rounding the eastern tip of Cuba for Jamaica. It has been so long since we had that point of sail, however, that Mel now believes the whole thing to be a seasickness med side effect. Mel no longer believes in the “broad reach.” So be warned: any statements by other sailors such as “we were on a lovely broad reach the whole way” should be viewed with skepticism.

Mel would like to leave some constructive feedback for the designers of the Leopard 48. First, your boat is beautiful and functional, and we love ours. However, it could use an upgrade in cabinet latches, as well as an island or something to break up the long hurtle to the saloon table. And please, upgrade the helm seat cushions to something cushier. They need it. If you don’t believe me, sit on the damn thing for 3 hours while once a second a gorilla jumps on your lap. You will definitely have a pain in your ass after that.

A little more than 24 hours left of this, and then we can put this jumping gorilla back in its cage.