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December 20th, 2009 – At Sea, 28º 39′S, 047º 56′W
by Herb McCormick
He hardly looks a day over 35, but yesterday, remarkably, our energetic and youthful photographer, David Thoreson, turned the big Five-Oh. Yup, amazingly enough, Thor is now 50. The rest of the permanent Ocean Watch crew found this a somewhat somber occasion: It was nice having a young whippersnapper aboard who was still in his forties; it did wonders for our demographics. Anyway, David, welcome to the club. Allow me to show you where we stash the ibuprofen and the tube of Ben-Gay.
Mr. T’s birthday was actually the third one we’ve celebrated since leaving Seattle last May. Mine was in early July,
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Dave Logan’s in mid-August. Never mind the numbers, let’s just say we’ve been eligible for AARP discounts for quite some time now. I pleaded with Logan to skip any sort of celebration on my behalf and he mostly obeyed, though the crew put together a nice card that’s one of my best souvenirs of the trip so far. Logan also asked me to keep his birthday low-key and I was going to honor his wishes until his wife, Joanna, intervened via email, and I’d much rather incur Dave’s wrath over Joanna’s any day of the week. Zeta Strickland of the Pacific Science Center was onboard at the time so I went to the store and bought cake mixes and made Zeta bake one, as I had never baked anything in my life. We’ll get back to that in a moment.
When we set out for the voyage Around the Americas, we all knew we’d be away for a year, but somehow it was lost on us – or at least on me – that holidays and birthdays and special occasions would continue on just as they always did. It’s hitting home this week – as it did, on a lesser scale, on Thanksgiving – with Christmas right around the corner.
David received a wonderful present for his birthday that we all got to enjoy: You could say it was an early X-mas gift for the entire Ocean Watch crew. Between 6 a.m. yesterday, his birthday, and 6 a.m. today, we knocked off 209 nautical miles rollicking along before a fresh northerly breeze and under the bluest blue sky imaginable. Now just over 500 n.m. from our next stop, Punta del Este, Uruguay, we’re still squarely in the midst of some of the most magical sailing we’ve experienced on the entire voyage, much of it under our big, billowing spinnaker. And yesterday’s birthday celebration wasn’t the only significant milestone on the 19th of December, for we also watched the 16,000th mile appear on our trip log.
We took advantage of the miles sailed and the miles under Thoreson’s keel – not to mention the holiday season, which frankly has totally bypassed us – to enjoy a little party in the cockpit. David got to play whatever music he wanted, the skipper pretended to enjoy it, we had a tot or two, and watched the miles keep on slipping by.
On the day we purchased Logan’s cake and icing mixes, we bought another of each for the next festive occasion, which turned out to be yesterday. Unfortunately, Zeta is no longer aboard, so I volunteered to do the baking. It was a traumatic experience, though not as bad as it might’ve been. I followed the instructions as best I could, but really, how does one “dust flour?”
I can now state with authority that baking a spice cake on a 64-boat heeling in a stiff breeze is a challenging exercise. We have a gimbaled oven in the galley, but it still swings a bit in tune to the endless motion of the boat. The finished cake, once cooling, had a decided slope to it, like a wave breaking on a beach. We also couldn’t find that second packet of icing mix, but Logan gamely volunteered to make some from scratch, then couldn’t find two of the three required ingredients in the recipe he consulted from the boat’s copy of The Joy of Cooking. He carried forth with what was on hand, an old jury-rigger from way back.
“The cake seems to be listing to port,” observed Thoreson, who obviously hasn’t lost a step in his advancing
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| David learns to sail. |
years. And Logan’s icing, though quite delicious, had a crunchy, pebbly consistency to it that brought to mind a stroll down the beach. Between the wavy cake – a fine and symbolic sculpture to the seas upon which it was baked, for those in a charitable mood – and its sandy topping, the entire affair did present a nautical aura. Thor seemed to enjoy it, or at least he said he did, and that’s the important thing.
So, we’ve got three birthdays down, and before too long, Christmas and New Year’s Day will also be behind us. Like in an old-time movie, the pages of the calendar keep flashing by. With each passing holiday, we’re less surprised about their frequency. And looking ahead, we promise to be home by the Fourth of July
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- Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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