6 days underway and the last few have been less than pleasant. We had some nasty seas on Saturday night with 40-50 kt winds, which sent me in a downward spiral. I put on a Scopamine patch, but it didnt really seem to help at that point. We pulled out into the Gulf of Alaska to begin our leg towards Anchorage and were hit with nasty headwinds and big swells. I was already feeling a little noxious, so needless to say, it got worse. 3 days into the middle of the Gulf and I'm finally starting to find some balance between head and ear. I went 3 days having only a few crackers, a Clif builder bar and maybe a piece of ham. Sucks. I've been sea sick before, but never for more than 2 days. Last night, I made the decision to forego any motion sickness pills/patches and just deal with it, and its helped quite a bit. Tonight I ate a normal dinner and I haven't been sick in 24 hours. The seas are supposed to pick up later, so we will see if I've adapted or not. I think I've lost at least 5-8 lbs in the past 5 days.
We've been keeping busy by painting, cleaning, doing maintenance on immersion suits etc. I found that if I sit by the back door of the fidley (the small room off of the aft deck) I can get fresh air and see the waves, which helps me feel great. So, I have been finding things to work on in the fidley while on watch. For the past 2 nights, I have sanded, painted, sharpened and labeled every hand tool we have. Mostly hammers, axes, peavies, bolt cutters. Everything is looking good and shiny. Then today, Dan and I painted the workbench and vise in the fidley. I also braided all new lines for the safety clips that are used on the pelican hooks, just busy work. Hopefully tomorrow I'm ok with doing inside jobs because I'm running out of projects back there. The AB's clean constantly, so I get to clean the heads, sweep and mop, take out trash, empty the slop buckets overboard and check on the engines every hour. There's a few holding areas for sea water (Eco ballasts) that fill up and we have to operate a pump every few hours to empty them. Nothing is hard... Unless you're having to stop and get sick every hour. :-)
The temps have dropped considerably and we are getting snow off and on. Tonight is supposed to get colder and the winds are supposed to pickup. It's pretty cool so watch the snow whizz past the deck flood lights with the black background at night.
The guys have been easy on me about the seasickness. The 3rd mate told me the he gets sick now and then and that I shouldn't worry about it. Just stay hydrated he says. I do my job as normal, just plugging away and trying to keep it from slowing me down.
No cell service for a few days now, but as we get closer to Anchorage, that should change and this will get posted. Really missing the family and need to hear their voices. This Saturday will be 5 weeks since I've seen them... Feels like 10.
Off to bed.
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