August 28 – the following email was received from BAMO today
“All is well - the seas have eased a bit today and things are a bit easier to do.
We are on our 68 foot platform sailing along with plenty of the things that happen in the suburbs of Sydney happening here as well. Baking bread, washing, reading, listening to music ... the big difference being the effort to do these simple tasks because of the healing over.
And by the way, we are open 24 hours.
We are all looking forward to getting to Rio. Sail changes happen day & night.
Napppy rash** is the only thing that I’m suffering from & the sleep deprivation.
All is good. I will get into more of a routine when the conditions improve.
Thanks Jan for cutting & pasting from the CV5 blog - you know more about the overall picture than me.
Love to you all, talk soon,
BAMO"
**BAMO’s crewmate Nina Zeun gave a brilliant insight into the wet conditions and an explanation of ‘nappy rash’ in her diary entry on the official Clipper website (Race 2 Day 15)
“Being on a boat one might expect to get wet. No big deal right? But trust me, there is wet and then there is WET.
We have by now acquired the latter status and the boat is starting to look like a Chinese laundry. There are clothes swinging from every available hook and cranny.
On our way through the ITCZ - Inter Tropical Convergence Zone AKA the Doldrums - we got quite used to being able to keep us and a shirt or two clean during our standby watches. We'd simply take a bucket up on deck and give both ourselves and some clothes a good rinse. With light winds and burning hot sun it all soon dried. But coming out the other end of the ITCZ we have started to encounter squall after squall.
This means our hatches remain firmly closed and the atmosphere below decks resembles a Finnish sauna more than regular liveable quarters.... The humidity has reached a level where the bulkheads are sweating with us (dripping with the condensation) and to top it all off, with beating into the lately acquired wind, we are getting soaked on deck as well.
So now the boat is draped on any imaginable surface with wet clothes and they don't seem to dry any more. So the pile keeps growing. The generator area is very popular as the heat helps, but bunks and handrails and food nets that have been emptied of their earlier contents are all decorated with shirts, shorts and smalls.
Speaking of those... even getting yourself dry is a challenge. I was on the verge of developing a nappy rash from sitting on the wet high side of the boat (all to make us go faster you understand) and it seemed impossible to get my bottom dry again as I was instantly dripping with sweat when below decks. A helpful crew member had to save me by sharing her talcum powder. Oh the embarrassment! But boy was I glad to be powdered like a six month old. We had to surmise: Wet Bottom Girls do make this rocking boat go round!"
We have by now acquired the latter status and the boat is starting to look like a Chinese laundry. There are clothes swinging from every available hook and cranny.
On our way through the ITCZ - Inter Tropical Convergence Zone AKA the Doldrums - we got quite used to being able to keep us and a shirt or two clean during our standby watches. We'd simply take a bucket up on deck and give both ourselves and some clothes a good rinse. With light winds and burning hot sun it all soon dried. But coming out the other end of the ITCZ we have started to encounter squall after squall.
This means our hatches remain firmly closed and the atmosphere below decks resembles a Finnish sauna more than regular liveable quarters.... The humidity has reached a level where the bulkheads are sweating with us (dripping with the condensation) and to top it all off, with beating into the lately acquired wind, we are getting soaked on deck as well.
So now the boat is draped on any imaginable surface with wet clothes and they don't seem to dry any more. So the pile keeps growing. The generator area is very popular as the heat helps, but bunks and handrails and food nets that have been emptied of their earlier contents are all decorated with shirts, shorts and smalls.
Speaking of those... even getting yourself dry is a challenge. I was on the verge of developing a nappy rash from sitting on the wet high side of the boat (all to make us go faster you understand) and it seemed impossible to get my bottom dry again as I was instantly dripping with sweat when below decks. A helpful crew member had to save me by sharing her talcum powder. Oh the embarrassment! But boy was I glad to be powdered like a six month old. We had to surmise: Wet Bottom Girls do make this rocking boat go round!"
Nina Zeun, 35 from Germany, is a Project Manager - like BAMO she will clock up 40,000 nautical miles as a RTW (Round The Worlder).
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