Cambyration 2 - after Sawmill Bay

For some strange reason, when Google Video did its magic transformations on the video, the sound developed an echo. It sounds like we're in a bucket. Oh well.

Chad took over the wheel for a while (he had to steer his own boat SOME). But mostly, he was having fun playing with the canvas and tinkering. He's a pretty kinetic guy, so I think he was happy to run around the decks as a way to work off some of his excitement.

We started with the jib, mizzen, and main sails, then he took down the mizzen and put up the mizzen stay sail for a while before going back to the mizzen. It was prety hard keeping all of the sails filled with wind at our backs, and we did a lot of experimentation to try to find the right balance.

We really needed a whisker pole for the jib, but didn't have one. Eventually Chad improvised a bit with a small gaff, but we emissed the whisker pole, for sure. As the wind picked up it got even more challenging because the seas got higher. This resulted in a lot of wallowing which started to affect Chad and me and most especially Sushi, the boat cat. Leeann apparently has a cast iron stomach.

In addition to the vague queeziness (well, explicit for Sushi) we had to contend with the steering. Keeping a straight course when the seas are *almost* directly behind you and the boat is wallowing is surprisingly challenging.

Instead of just holding the wheel and pointing in one direction, we had to compensate for each rolling wave and the different directions it would push the boat on the up and the down slopes.

I was still getting used to steering like a car instead of steering like a tiller but it was coming together more.

I am totally in awe of Leeann. She was just puttering away in the cabin while the boat was rolling and rocking like a slow thrill park ride, yet she never got green around the gills.

For those of you who don't know, the worst thing you can do if you are seasick is to go below decks. It's much better to see the horizon and have fresh air. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain that to a cat although Sushi eventually seemd to figure it out on her own.

Did you know that you can give a cat Dramamine? 11.5 mg for an average weight cat apparently.