At least March 27th

It was  right after lunch on the first day that I went to "lie down" and did not come back up to see the bright, beautiful day from my bunk for about 3 days. I should formally apologize to Garen here. I killed his hat by filling it with....lunch. He came down to check on me. I asked for his hat. He looked confused and well, the rest of the time I managed to have plastic bags at my disposal. 

I have never been so happy to be gripping one of those. In fact, it is very hard to escape plastic packaging on a boat when you need to store food for long periods of time. 

Turns out, there had been a whole lot of life going on while I was rolling around in my bunk. Enough meals to wash the dish towels...enough shifts without my help that I really owed Ben and Charlie (my shift mates) a few snacks at 4 a.m. to make up for it. 

And of course, a BIG thank you to Garen for taking care of me while I was "under the weather."

Let me explain shifts. 

There were 13 people on the Sea Dragon. 

We were broken into 3 "watches" of 3-4 people who rotated through the following shifts:

8 AM - 2 PM - responsible for steering the boat, lunch and cleaning the bathrooms, walls and floors, bumping the tanks that hold the water from showers, and writing in the log book ever hour

2 PM - 8 PM - responsible for cleaning up after lunch, steering the boat, making dinner for the crew and writing in the log book ever hour

8 PM - 12 AM - responsible for cleaning up after dinner, steering the boat and writing in the log book every hour

12 AM - 4 AM -  steering the boat and writing in the log book every hour

4 AM - 8 AM -  steering the boat and writing in the log book every hour

Here is how you rotate through the shifts. 

8 AM - 2 PM - on watch 

2 PM - 8 PM - off watch

8 PM - 12 AM - off watch 

12 AM - 4 AM - on watch

4 AM - 8 AM - off watch

8 AM - 2 PM - off watch

2 PM - 8 PM - on watch 

and so on.....

What you do when you are "off watch" - sleep.

We sailed on toward the South Pacific Gyre while we got into the rhythm of life on the boat. Our daily schedule was as striped down as the blue horizon in front of us. Both beautiful, sparse and new to us.

I relished the view on top of the Sea Dragon....

from my new vantage point at the steering wheel. It felt good to pull my weight on watch. There were plenty of adventures waiting for us, but feeling my feet on the deck was the start of mine.