The 09/11/2007
A day in the life of Dee Caffarari
Looking ahead at my calendar, it sounds fantastic doesn't it? Off to Brazil, then sailing in New Zealand and Portugal before racing across to the United States. Quite the glamorous rock star life style you might be thinking, but the reality of offshore sailing can be quite the opposite.
The truth of life aboard an Open 60 would make some of the population squirm in horror.
So I thought I would share my day with you guys back home to give you a taste of my life on board to see how our days compare.I suspect today began for you with a nice hot shower. Sadly we don't have such luxuries and so a baby wipe is the closest thing to a hot bath we have, unless we get lucky and it rains.
Water is made for drinking and we would not dream of wasting so much on something as frivolous as a shower or bath (even if we had a shower or bath onboard, which we don’t).
When you had hopped out of your shower and dried off with a lovely soft towel, I expect you opened your wardrobe to select an outfit for your day. In stark contrast, we don’t change our clothes for the duration of the trip, we are more into ‘accessorising’ - which indexly involves peeling or adding some layers as the weather and physical activity dictates.
Once dressed, did you head downstairs for a spot of breakfast? What was it? Bacon sandwich? Cereal with fresh milk eaten at the breakfast table? For us, we serve up a tantalising freeze-dried food concoction eaten direct from the packet to avoid any washing up. After the first two or three days at sea fresh food is just a distant mouth watering memory. I expect you nipped to the bathroom to answer the call of nature before you set off for the day. For our daily ‘feeling of wellbeing’ we use a bucket and, whilst on the throne, are blasted by all the elements nature has in her armoury. It is an experience I can tell you!
At the end of the day, do you fall into your lovely comfy bed under a warm duvet and get a good 8 hours rest? We lead a 24hrs day and sleep at the navigation station in short bursts of one hour at a time (that’s if you can sleep through the creaking and banging that echoes around the cockpit) unless called upon by our co skipper to change sails or gybe.
When we do manage to drift into some sleep we do so half dressed with our boots ready to hand in case we are needed in a hurry.
Please do not weep for us though - we absolutely LOVE our chosen lifestyle. There is nothing more natural than the life we lead out here on the water. We wear a weathered glow throughout the year from being exposed to the wind and sun. Basic needs for survival are the only important things for us and material items just pass us by. We need only to be warm, dry, fed and watered - anything else is superfluous. We are in the luxurious position of working under clear milky way skies at night that reach from horizon to horizon without any interruption from ambient light. Shooting stars by the hundreds tear across the black sky almost every evening. Dolphins play with the boat daily to keep us company and flying fish add to our entertainment as they flee predators in the water by flying into and over our yacht.
As the weather warms up, we see blistering sunrises and sunsets that are so stunning it is difficult to portray in words.The good always outweighs the bad and I will put up with any discomfort to be able to continue enjoying this beautiful environment.
I consider myself blessed to be out here doing what I love.
|
