Sea Enemas
29 April 2009 | off Green Island, Antigua
One of our last nights on Green Island was spent eating, drinking and laughing with our friends from "Oti Mai". We originally met Gary and his wife Jean at a café a few weeks ago. Gary was eying my empendada, I offered him a bite, and the beginning of a new friendship was formed. Their daughter Nina (far right in the photo above) joined them a few days later and the 5 of us have shared many fun days and evenings learning to kiteboard, sharing stories, and laughing a LOT.
One of the things that got us laughing this night was a discussion of our upcoming 4-day downwind sail from Antigua to Curacao. You see, the folks on Oti Mai have a keen understanding of what it's like to be seasick for days at a time. If you're not prone, it's difficult to truly empathize...but they could. Instead of excitement, there was a mutual understanding of the dreaded pitching rolling motion that can accompany a dead-downwind sail, particularly with light winds and a big swell. As the seas come from behind you, the boat will pitch one way and then the other, making sort of a figure-8 motion in the process...truly puke-inducing. We likened our upcoming sail to a giant "sea enema", which cracked us all up.
Well, our time here has run out so unless there's a tropical storm a'brewin', we'll be heading out in a few days for Curacao. If all goes well and we get 20 knots or so, we'll fly downwind in 3 days; if we get light winds, we'll slowly loll around and be the victim of the dreaded sea enema for up to 100 hours! Let's hope for good winds!