Chris Bertish | Captains Log | 13th – 17th June, 2022

Captains Log

13th -17th June

29 05’474 N 128 01’447W

Pacific Ocean

Milestones-The waterline/ Hatches & rouge waves/MOB take 2 -Injuries /Slow is pro / It’s all shifting / Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs / Story of the clever turd! / Shifting spaces / Into the light.. Breakthrough/ Flicker on! / Shifting goalposts/ Threading the needle/ There’s a Storm a brewing!

The waterline is a term I use differently from most.. While it normally means where the boat above water meets the ocean, for me it’s very different.. it’s actually on of the three key milestones on Expeditions like this..

On the craft, I pack Emergency water for the trip, which also act as ballasts from the craft for the first tough 1/3 of the journey when conditions are the roughest. They make the Impifish sit slightly deeper and more stable in the water, & if my water maker fails I have backup water for a good period without stress.. safety backups for me are everything.

So I pack 50litres of emergency water, which is a lot, always! And once I get to a point where I know I’ve made it through the first two weeks (the hardest part where most shit can go wrong), then I know if my water maker fails, I have just enough water – just over 1 Litre per day for the rest of the trip, to not have to pull the plug on the expedition if my water maker fails..

I can just fall back on the emergency water till the end of the trip, which now should be less than 50days, so I’m covered. And even then, I also have a very small, very energy intensive handheld unit, as a backup to this! Water is the key to survival, & without it your expedition is screwed, so this is the #1 key item to get right to a successful project, always.

Chris Bertish | Captains Log | 13th – 17th June, 2022

With food you can always go onto rations, catch fish.. but water not.

So I’ve finally made it past the Waterline and am safe for the rest of the trip. One key successful milestone ticked.. stoked!

I’ve been in thick wet fog again for the last 2 days with lots of breeze, and 3m seas. It’s cold, wet, nasty, and really unpleasant, besides constantly worrying about having enough power from solar to run systems, getting enough sleep, keeping warm, making water, the ships in the fog.. fixing things constantly, not being able to get the wind you need to keep you on course.. it’s constant stress and trying to calm/control your anxiety levels.

To keep a level head and persevere through it all day while doing 12-15hr shifts is the hardest thing to manage and maintain..

But this afternoon we had a breakthrough .. after being in that horrible wet, cold fog for far too long, just after 5pm, I saw a line up ahead where it looked like it was lifting…

And sure enough, 15 mins later, the line ahead of me was above me and it literally just cleared – 180 degrees ahead of me and to all sides, I came right through it and out of it, like drawing a line in the sand… except it was a line in the sky and ocean.. and looking behind me, there was a clear frontal fog line, like a barrier, like deep dark forest and I had come out into the light from the shadows….

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