Hitting that psychological wall

7º 02.623s 134º 17.243w

Sat May 04 2019

I worked for a flying robot company for almost 4 months in 2015. I had expected to be there for 3, and that last 4 weeks was really a struggle for me. Did something similar in 2016, but didn’t work quite as long. After 2 months it really became difficult to get up and go to work. Sold them a week or two of my life in 2017, and one week last year. What did we used to say at the big aerospace company? Something like “start slow and taper off”. We were joking around of course; we worked our butts off there.

There are times when your brain or your body say “I’ve had enough, I want do be done with this now.” I think we’ve all just about hit that wall. It’s been a great passsage! Wonderful comraderie, some great sailing including a JollyDogs personal best, lots of knowledge and experience gained, newfound confidence in our vessel and ourselves.

When we were kids on a family road trip, we’d whine at dad and ask him when we were going to “get there”. His answer was always “soon”. Talk about committment issues! We also learned that if we asked about doing something and he shut us down by saying “we’ll see”, that pretty much meant “hell no, but I don’t want to argue about it right now”.

While sucking down our morning cuppa, Isabel and I both noted that yesterday felt like we had hit a wall. We’re ready to be there, to start a different routine, or abandon routine altogether for a while.

I’m going to start referring to Thad as “Smilin’ Jack”. He’s so cheerful and easy going, but I’m betting he can feel that wall as well.

We’re around 360 miles from Nuka Hiva. It’s important to fight off those feelings that can lead to complacency. If we cross that bridge the next problem will be carelessness and then someone will get hurt or our impatience will influence us to push our girl too hard and we’ll break something expensive.

Relax laddies and lassies, less than three days to go.