Blang!… My intuition that rightly recognizes every single noise on the boat woke me up. There was a new unknowned noise. Clang, clang, pff… I had to get out of my warm bed – if anything goes wrong, I can always be sure that it will happen at night – and so I went to check on the windvane. Humm, the stainless eye-clip that holds the pulley that guides the cables to the tiller had broken off, but by using a rope and a little improvisational talent I managed to fix it, and in a short time the whole thing was working again. Then I stood still for a while in the hatchway just to watch the almost full moon that draws a mysterious glow on the swell, when an unexpectedly high wave smashed over Guppy making me fall backwards and down the stairs. I came to a stop half-way into the cabin as an acute pain went through my foot… that is bleeding like crazy. There is a large wound at the bottom of my foot. After limping back and forth through the cabin several times and dressing the wound, the cabin’s floor is very nicely covered with drips and streaks of blood. Well, it matches with Guppy and it is also my favourite color… If I avoid standing on my foot, the pain is bearable, and I am now quite busy practicing the Flamingo’ stance…some other challenge that goes to show that sailing is really unpredictable…

Laura