Ben Edwards morning of 30 July south Kara Sea
I have a cold. It’s my fault of course. Yesterday on my first half hour of the horrible watch I had no hat and had my hood pulled back so that I could see better. A wave came over the side and hit my in the face, that was, to put it mildly, cold. A couple of hours after that I developed a blocked nose, headache an sore throat. This got progressively worse as the day went on and I spent the night with little sleep. The morning came and the cold was a little better. I still couldn’t breathe through my nose though and the headache was not exactly fun. During my first watch I saw the sun and sky for the first time in four days. Alas this did not last long and by the end of my watch we had complete cloud cover again. On the plus side the weather has been getting progressively warmer, it’s not exactly the Bahamas but we’ve turned the heater off and have still had fifteen degrees in the cabins. I know that doesn’t seem like much from your perspective but up here thats bordering on too warm for some of us.
We’ve been able to go more or less due east since this morning. The sea state has been kind enough, as has the wind, so our course has been fairly steady. I have to admit that this bit of the journey has been very Twilight zone like. I have completely lost track of time, as has everyone else I think. I’m really looking forward to getting to some land and hopefully some shelter from the wind. And the waves actually, no waves would be lovely. This blog is going to be very short I’ve afraid, this is because I’m currently finding thinking very difficult, probably because of the cold, as in the virus not the temperature. I’ll write again when I can think strait. That might be a while, in the meantime, bye.
3 Comments. Leave new
Hi Ben. You are wonderfully articulate. I would never have guessed your age from your writings. Sorry to hear about your cold. It is amazing how susceptible we can be to viruses with even a slight temperature drop.
We sometimes have Russian ships here in the local docks and occasionally I’ve been working around the ships in a winter wearing several layers and resembling a ‘Michelin man’ (hope that makes sense to you!) only to see the Russians in T-shirts! They have come from somewhere 10deg cooler and have a metabolism to deal with it. I understand that after a few weeks we all can adjust, but it is ‘no pain, no gain’. You have to be a little cold to prompt your body to adjust; then you catch a cold!
It must be rally strange, when used to a lifetime of dark evenings, to experience a day that lasts for months. Still messes with my head.
I feel that all of the crew, for whom this might have been the first heavy sea to weather, have done well and deserve some off time to gather themselves.
Hope the route ahead opens up soon.
Best regards.
Ben, some info you can google. Upper respiratory tract viral infections (URIs) come in two forms. Influenza, which affects the whole body (fever, ache, and can be deadly) and colds. Colds are caused by about 145 types of three virus families: naked rhinos ( most common), enveloped adenos ( also responsible for pinkeye), and enveloped coronas ( least common, but most serious since also SARS and MERS). The incubation time from viral infection is 2-4 days depending on viral strain and last immune exposure. Immunity wears off with time, and with 145 viruses, most humans experience ~2 ‘colds’ per year. Same reason flu shots are required annually. You caught it from someone in the crew, who was likely asymptomatic because of their own recent exposure to an immunotype you did not have recent exposure to. Nothing to do with your hats, hoods, and cold seawater. Reason colds peak in winter is people are more indoors infecting each other. Like on your boat. Enjoy your fresh cold air. Hat/hood only if raining/snowing/blowing.
Fortunately, we usually recover from all true colds after some small misery period like yours. Antibiotics are definitely contraindicated. No effect on viruses whatsoever.
Regards from an old US nrional champion sailor and CEO of a novel anti-infectives company with technology that prevents colds, flu, and hospital bacterial infections.
WOW. Thanks!