SailBlog

Vessel Name: Inspired Insanity
Vessel Make/Model: Southern Cross 28
Hailing Port: Virgin Islands
Extra: First American Woman to Solo Sail Nonstop Around the World
Home Page: www.donnalange.com
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10 July 2016 | Bristol RI
15 June 2016 | 35 00'N:75 05'W, Another wild few days ahead... deja vu.
13 June 2016 | 30 00'N:79 35'W, in the Gulf Stream off Jacksonville Fl
01 June 2016 | 41 24'N:71 25'W, Just arriving in Lake Worth... leaving again tomorrow in my car back to RI
29 May 2016 | 41 24'N:71 25'W, Bristol RI: Herreshoff Museum Dock
26 May 2016 | 41 24'N:71 25'W, a day to tidy up...
25 May 2016 | 40 54'N:71 52'W, starry night sky, farewell dance for now...
25 May 2016 | 40 28'N:72 30'W, ?? Arrival to bay tomorrow afternoon: 2 days to events
25 May 2016 | 40 28'N:72 30'W, ?? Arrival to bay tomorrow afternoon: 2 days to events
24 May 2016 | 39 47'N:73 16'W, 4 days to arrival..incredible to imagine...
23 May 2016 | 39 11'N:74 00'W, 4 days to arrival..incredible to imagine...
22 May 2016 | 38 10'N:73 30-'W, 4 days to arrival..incredible to imagine...
21 May 2016 | 36 37'N:74 03'W, 5 days to arrive... made 157nm yesterday..only 300nm to go
21 May 2016 | 36 37'N:74 03'W, 5 days to arrive... made 157nm yesterday..only 300nm to go
20 May 2016 | 35 15'N:74 45'W, 6 days to arriving!!!
20 May 2016 | 34 27'N:75 19'W, 7 days to arriving!!!
18 May 2016 | 32 12'N:77 32'W, 8 days to my arrival... keep an eye on the tracker!!
17 May 2016 | 30 26'N:79 01'W, 9 days to my arrival... keep an eye on the tracker!!
16 May 2016 | 27 45'N:79 48'W, 11 days to my arrival... keep an eye on the tracker!!
16 May 2016 | 26 'N:79 48'W, 11 days to my arrival... keep an eye on the tracker!!
Recent Blog Posts
10 July 2016 | Bristol RI

Journeying On

The summer has barely begun in Rhode Island and the mornings already seem to be cool, almost a scent of autumn air… How is that possible? There is so much to do. Each day seems to begin and end with a sense of having been floating on air, my feet barely touching the ground. “What is it like now, [...]

15 June 2016 | 35 00'N:75 05'W, Another wild few days ahead... deja vu.

Passing Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras!!!

There was no warning�... the day touting varying winds from the SE to SW, the sails trimmed in and let back out over and over to keep us moving as fast as we could, the engine called upon when we weren�'t moving fast enough. I was making breakfast when Bob went up on deck responding to a sound�... next [...]

13 June 2016 | 30 00'N:79 35'W, in the Gulf Stream off Jacksonville Fl

Offshore once more: SV Calyspo is heading north!

It seems endless, the need to keep pressing, keep moving, from one point to another, the whole world of details needing to be dealt with upon returning after so long offshore, after having completely detached from the world system. Yet, there is a dream state that wants to believe I would not reattach�... [...]

01 June 2016 | 41 24'N:71 25'W, Just arriving in Lake Worth... leaving again tomorrow in my car back to RI

the MISSING BLOGS: are coming

Hang in there... I am enroute to Florida to get my car... a busy week. I am getting the 'missing blogs' going. I just realized that I didn't write any blog the days I was knocked down...though Bob did an incredible job of keeping you updated and with the details...He was totally accurate and you all [...]

29 May 2016 | 41 24'N:71 25'W, Bristol RI: Herreshoff Museum Dock

Magnificent Welcome Home

PHOTO: after knockdowns at Cape Horn and heading for Panama WATCH FOR NEW BLOGS : FROM FEB.14- MAR 28�... HANDWRITTEN UNDERWAY AFTER MY COMPUTER BROKE, TO BE TRANSCRIBED AND POSTED OVER THE NEXT SIX WEEKS�... STAY TUNED!!!

The eve of the storm or not the eve...that is the question!

19 December 2015 | 44 12'S:139 12'E, On the 7th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 7 Sails a Flying!
Donna: CPM 22 121815 0915UTC
The eve of the storm or not the eve...that is the question! On the 7th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 7 Sails a Flying!

Photo: Just dreaming! By Tuesday I will be in another high and hopefully not slowed down but back in the blue...

Last night was a reminder of days gone by in the S. Atlantic beating for 3 weeks with headwinds, gusty, squally nights in and out of bed, in with the reef, out with the reef. Close hauling or close reaching, both with the wind well ahead of midships are slower points of sail on a boat like mine designed for cruising so, keeping the point is a trade off in speed which was my diligent quest then...but now...not so much. I was just grateful to finally get enough sail reefed to settle her down, regardless of speed or wind angle. It is a day or two of lttle progress..It took two days to sail my normal 120nm...so be it.

Once dawn came, it was as if I was qued that Anam Cara and IS had the watch. I went below and fell asleep enjoying a couple of hours added rest. It would be a rough few days ahead and I am out of step with the rigger of it all...a bit soft, lazy, and bliss ridden, it was just so beautiful to wake to the sunshine the day before and crystal Calypso blue water.

But not this morning. A full cloud cover day and still a light rain...winds from the NNE so I am still close reaching, but the winds settled down in the early morning hours and before I went down to rest I had tossed out a bit of sail to get us moving again.

I did my morning download...I had a lovely letter from a dear friend who'd had a birthday ... and I was still somehow notified by social media on my computer... I don't know where it keeps that informatino when you are not online...but it offered me a hint so I could send off a email greeting.

Then to the weather speculating..The grib files have consistently had variations from Bob McD's forecasts and this time the inconsistently is regarding timing; and neither have my present conditions correct as I have had NE winds, not easterlies for a bit of time.. The Grib shows the fore warm front to be this afternoon with the winds backing to NW late afternoon through the night, then backing to SW tomorrow morning, the center of this cell of the storm, going over with the expected winds, resolving by late afternoon tomorrow into the night.

Bob McD suggests the warm front will start tonight all night with this lightening extravaganza now: : "Hmmm...satellite imagery and lightning tracker is showing that some hot dry air from Australia has been ingested into the warm front that you are likely to encounter tonight from 19 0900Z , this may bring some lightning along with the rain". , and then the winds back to NW through tomorrow... the real party is tomorrow night, maxing at 2200 local time here with the pressure dropping to 989hPa and the wind speed at 35 gusting to 50... through night ..by mid morning Monday it is all over with 15-20kt winds... So I have no idea what is going to really happen. ...It is a 12 hour difference, but for me...the Grib shows the most intense part of the storm during daylight hours...a comforting idea, where as Bob McD suggests it will be an all nighter... so ... If I had my druthers, I'd go with the day storm...but I doubt it...night is a typical raging time. it is raining and blowi ng 25kts now, ...but no lightening as of yet.

As the day progressed it got nasty out, more drizzle rain with gusting winds and a bit close to the nose... I just took a look at the barometer...It was at 1010 this morning and is now reading 1001...Wow... That is a dramatic change... something is happening. Winds from the east and now light rain gusting, squally.. uck... on a port tack so I am plastered up against the wall of my bed as I am typing, somehow pretending IS was not a submarine at this point...

I am just too tired for this...but...no choice. It is just getting worse now..so I will reduce sail...but I won't go anywhere as when it isn' gusting, the wind dies.. So...it is reminding my of the S. Atlantic. I can't believe I did this for 3 weeks nonstop...It is just so horrible on board. it was squally just like this every day and every night... in and out with the reefs. I finally just got to letting the main out and letting it flog instead of reefing or putting the main down... Shoot...I am going to have to go and do something. The rail is buried... and I have to have my gear on or I get my clothes wet...

I have been so spoiled and now this is just so horrible...Now the wind generator just turned into a jet engine... Ugh...I am so tired already...

I have to go. I am back. It is amazing how I still don't always get it... the wind was howling and it is so hard to really know how hard... I had way too much sail up but it took a half hour for me to finally reef it down enough to where we were actually sailing, not being pushed around by the wind.. I was frustrated as IS was out of balance and I couldn't tell why right away. I could feel that old negativity creeping in...just not wanting to have to deal with what is to come, yet, knowing that it is so much milder than what I could be dealing with and trying to get a better take on it all.

My emotions were in turmoil, tears, not crying, just tears falling ... as I stood their with the boat lurching, the wind blazing, hair dripping water, my reading glasses threatening to fall off my head...I tucked them into my coat pocket. I kept moving though.. The wind generator...I would stop that noise at least. I love being able to use the radio and real speakers, but I would rather not listen to the constant crescendo and diminuendo of the engine roaring. I had to turn the boat downwind as with the wind on the nose, the tail of the generator is too far aft for me to grab around it without fearing getting clipped by the whizzing prop... I climbed on the stern pulpit wedged between the backstay and the generator pole... grabbed the tail and turned the prop off the wind. It slowly came to a stop and I tied it off... wow, suddenly the angst in the energy of the wind stopped.

I began a chat with the ocean...a peer to me, though the immense Ocean herself. ... I just seem so weary and already, the motion is violent...I can barely stand up down below and yet we seem to be barely moving..I was feeling so empty of capacity to deal with this storm coming, the sail changes, just the sound of the howling...as I stood in the wind, taking spray from behind the dodger, just being out there, that inner voice suggested to me that I may be misreading my emotions... maybe the tears and sense of being overwhelmed is as much about the majesty of the whole experience..the intensity, yet more than that, the immensity of my being opening up to the potential energy swirling around me and the beauty of it, as gray as it seems, how it is really full of light...Somehow, just the shift in my perspective changed my energy, from seeing the moment half empty to half full...(a favorite expression of cooper's)...

I began to talk outloud, in a chat with Wise Mother Ocean, as a camarade in this journey...the sea state is nearly flat except for a few feet of wind waves, the sky is actually peaking through the clouds in places, and she assures me in my very inner being that it is all going to be fine...that she is looking out for me... I am going to experience the storm but I can have peace as we are in it together. It was real..I do have peace. I have had this discussion before each of the last few storms in fact...and each time I was overwhelmed with peace...and each storm was more than manageable, less intense than anticipated, I believe the sea would let me know if there was some danger that I should be doing something dramatic to prevent...I would know. I cried again, as that is what I do at moments of deep oneness with my inner being and the sea...the sky...my family.. .my Bob... with Life! Life energy in presence.

I watched and felt the winds rage a bit longer, took a good bucket toss of salt water to the back of my head and decided WMO was joking around, but that I would rather stay dry...it was time for my hot veggie power drink..

The boat feels more balanced now... As long as the wind stays up, we should be set for the next round as the winds should back around...then I will have to put up the pole on the jib..but when it really starts to blow out of the SW, I will just run the jib free. It is strange because I am looking at the Grib files for cues as to the next wind change and timing, yet I know that it disagrees with Bob McD's timing...so... I am just sailing... The progression is probably near to correct, and the timing...is everything and will be what it IS. Not unlike music progressions; what makes each song unique is not really the progression... it is the individual writer's expression of the story, the unique experience it shares.

I am tucked below, warming my hands and feet. I am going to get my 'real' foul weather coat accessible for later. I am also downloading a pressure and a precipitation Grib file... that will give me some sense of the changes occuring. I know the pressure is already dropping dramatically, so it may give me some sense of timing.

One more email... Bob McD.. the lightening on the satellite radar suggests that the warm front has already expended it's clashing energy of hot and cold to the west of me...No lightening for me tonight...I have to say that I am not going to miss the display... I will take a raincheck... Thank you, Bob McD for sending that on.

It is quiet remarkable how my journey on the sea, and my Bob's journey on land are bringing us closer together as we are sharing the journey in a more spiritual context and it is real. We do sense each other and the support we are sharing inwardly in a much deeper way than we do when we share life face to face. It is a true 'gold leaf lining' to a challenging aspect of the whole journey. We share a peace and faith we have not had to have before, a blessing we will be able to continue to enjoy when I return.

Bob cues me at times regarding friends that are making comments. We were reminiscing regarding those who are following my journey and where we met them...I am so interested in the way folks comment and that you are enjoying the blogs. Carvey...thanks so much for keepin on sailin on with me. A bird whispered in my ear that you are watching!...Scott and Kitty, I am so grateful to have met you guys at the Gam in Essex...your passion for the experiences you had during your circumnavigations was such a foretelling of the blessings I have experienced here... SSCA is a great merging of sailing and yachting souls of common threads in the heart. Thank You all... who are energizing my experience from a world away.

Keepin On Sailin On Caring... I am so aware today of the voices of empathy and caring that are reaching out to me each day... easing the suffering, as there is a constant pain of discomfort in an arena as this... I am hearing you all... I am truly being held up by you at times when I am realizing that I am so weary but I am getting the job done somehow.

"It is a wonderful moment when a voice of kindness and care reaches toward you. Suffering brings you to a land where no one can find you...yet when the human voice focuses in empathetic tenderness, it can find its way across any distance to the desolate heart of another's pain. The healing voice becomes the inner presence of the friend, watchful and kind at the source. " John O'Donohue, Divine Beauty

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

�"Sent from my RedPort Aurora Satellite Terminal http://www.globalmarinenet.com/product/redport-aurora/ www.globalmarinenet.com www.ushuaialogistics.com www.xaxero.com www.transmarinepro.co.nz http://www.mwxc.com Chris Parker weather services www.jamestowndistributors.com www.bellplantation.om (PB2) www.caphorn.com www.marinemotion.com http://sayitright.com www.yoloadventure.com www.islandplanetsails.com www.baconsails.com
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