Fatigue

Is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. I checked it with the stopwatch today, but our ship is pitching in these steep seas 12-13 times per minute. Not a few degrees, but more than 20 degrees like you can see on our clinometer on the bridge. These values are nothing special during adverse weather conditions. It means that during a watch of twelve hours bad weather, we're balancing 40 degrees about 10.000 times every day. Steel structures have a calculated fatigue life expressed in years. I wonder what the fatigue life of my ankles and knees is. Hopefully it is more than one lifetime cycle. It's a weird situation if you think again about these numbers, but one of my heroes, Hunter S.Thompson's, quote is very true : 'When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro'

We'll arrive at Las Palmas roads tonight for a short pitstop. Get fresh people and provisions on board. We won't even enter port, we stay outside and everything will be brought on board. Maybe there's light enough for an early blip.

By the way: PBQN means : Papa-Bravo-Quebec-November, it is our international callsign