Keeping Pace with Lindsay and Other Marathon Friends

Some of our excursions so far have been exhilarating, with waves, wind, currents, boat traffic, and other challenges that keep us fixed on task, often white knuckling the steering wheel and staring at our screen (GPS and depth sounder) and scene simultaneously.  Other times we are lounging around the cockpit, lazily sailing to our next destination.  We travel at about 7 kt (nautical miles per hour) on a good day.  A little more with strong winds or favorable currents.  A little less when the wind is light, the boat traffic is busy, the waves are high, or the current is unfavorable.

Lindsay’s marathon pace is 7:30 min/mile which when you have a nerd moment and convert, it comes to 6.952 kt, rounding to our speed of 7kt.  When we watch her times at the scheduled online tracking points, we see her speed is ridiculously constant, like ours.  Of course she can go faster, with shorter distances, or with spurts of energy and exertion, and may go a few seconds slower, like when she was freezing at the end of this year’s Boston Marathon in record cold, rainy, lousy weather.

This pace is our life now.  We have no car, just Alembic, our dinghy, our paddle board, and our feet.  Watching the world go by at 7 knots is satisfying.  No rush, no hurry.  I could get used to this.  Easier on the brain.  You get a chance to process before you are on to the next sight, sound, smell, or other brain input.  Ok, so running a marathon may be slightly more exhausting than sailing Alembic, we are still watching the world go by at the same pace.