Umm... Fin.

So you might be wondering..."What happened to Topher?"

After hanging with Alex in the hospital for awhile, then at our friend Kathy's for awhile more, I got all my stuff from the boat and headed out to New York City. Alex went home to heal.

New York is a crazy place, and since I had no particular place to be, I spent time sitting on benches and people watching; then reading, then napping on the grass, then people watching again. Sometimes I ate, sometimes I drank, and I always relaxed while everybody else was busy with the hustle.

Eventually I got bored with this routine and hitchhiked home. That's right, hitchhiked.
It only took me about nine hours and 3 different vehicles to get from NYC to Pittsburgh. That's faster than the bus! I had heard that hitchhiking wasn't possible in the states, but I had to try anyway. Actually it's pretty easy.

Walk up the on-ramp. Stick out your thumb. Wait.

Highlights:

-Sleeping in Union Squre
-Jazz in Harlem
-Crazy men with pet crabs in Brooklyn
-Staying out all night and hitchhiking home with no sleep

A bunch more has happened in the last few weeks, but frankly I don't

feel like typing all of it. Ask me when I see you in person.

Now I'm back at Villanova looking for an apartme

nt, signing up for cl

asses, and getting used to the window view from my desk at work. I'm restless. Compared to the summer it's a pretty boring living arrangement and my surroundings are a bit too familiar.

However, it is nice being in a place that you recognize with people you know. I always know how to get from place to place, I know which bars are cheap, and I can play music again. It is easy to forget how lucky I am to have grown up in a nice place, but this trip was a thuderous reminder.

Though I wasn't ready for the summer travels to be over (who ever is), it is so nice having a home to return to and people who care enough about you to read your blog.

Thanks.

Irony

I awoke with a strange feeling. My head felt fuzzy, and my body hurt. I looked through the smoky air inside the car to try to figure out what was going on. The airbags had deployed, but were now laying limp, with smoke slowly drifting from their holes. I looked all around. Sandra was in the driver's seat, looking just as confused as I was. I found part of my Oakley sunglasses on the dashboard and picked it up. I looked strangely at it, then tossed it aside, realizing I had more pressing issues to deal with. I didn't have a seat belt on. I always wear a seat belt. I never let a car move when I don't have a seat belt on. I knew something was strange. Turning around I expected to see Kathy and Tawfer in the back seats. To my surprise, they were not there. Even though my head hurt and I knew I wasn't thinking clearly on the verge of shock and panic, I knew they were supposed to be in the car. The last thing I remember was sitting in the front seat of the car with Sandra waiting for Tawfer and Kathy to catch up with us and get into the car. There was no reason they wouldn't be in the car. No windows were broken, but the windshield was badly dented from where my head hit the window. I looked at my cell phone. It was 2:45 am, and at 2:04 am I had a text message from Tawfer - "Where the f are you?" Why I looked at my phone at this time, I have no idea.

I fought panic and shock and tried to keep a rational mind, but they started to get the best of me and all I wanted to do was get out of the car. The metal on my door was mangled and wouldn't open. I tried the window, it was jammed too. Looking to my left, I saw that the driver's door was open. I told Sandra to climb out of the car, and I climbed over the center console and out of the driver's door of the car, falling on to the road. I crawled over to the sidewalk and sat down. I wanted to assess the situation, make decisions and start to clean up. I tried to muster everything I had, but my brain and body simply weren't working right.

The flashing lights appeared from down the road, and approached us with great speed. I found out later that we had crashed a block from the police station. Lucky us. The next thing I remember was being man handled by a group of police men and firemen as they strapped me into a backboard. They lifted me up, and into the ambulance I went. I kept trying to help my rescuers, I have never been on this side of an accident. The ambulance attendant tried to give me an IV, and after three tries he finally got it in.

I was driven to the hospital and put in the trauma unit. Nurses and doctors scurried around me, sticking needles in me, re-running IVs on both my arms and moving me around. They cut my shirt off, it was one of my favorites. A large male pulled my pants and boxers down as I was strapped to the backboard and surrounded by people. I exclaimed how things were getting exciting, but he asked me why my pants were all wet. I had to confess I was at a pool party all day. A police officer came in and introduced himself as Officer Weed. I told him he had an ironic name for a police officer. He wasn't amused.

Once I was stabilized, the doctor asked me if I wanted my girlfriend to come in to visit. I don't have a girlfriend, but I guess when your alone in a car with a cute Peruvian at 2am, they assume you're dating. When she came in, we tried to figure our what had happened. I asked her why we didn't have Tawfer and Kathy in the car, and why we were almost to her house, rather than Kathy's house like we planned. All she remembers is being in the front seat of the car talking to me while we were waiting for Tawfer and Kathy. Great. So we both don't remember why we were driving, why we left half our group, or why we were heading towards the wrong house.

A full body X-ray, full body CT scan, MRI, two bags of saline and some morphine later, they found out that I had a stressed ligament in my C4 vertebrae. In the accident my head had hit the windshield and took most of the force of my body because I didn't have a seat belt on. We could only come up with one possible scenario as to what happened between the parking lot and the telephone pole. We were talking in the car without seat belts on, waiting for Tawfer and Kathy. We both fell asleep. I remained asleep while Sandra "sleep drove" us towards her house, until she made a sleep driving mistake (whatever that is) and hit a pole.

I have a neck brace that I have to wear for 10 days, then I have to go see a neurologist. Our plan was to sail to Martha's Vinyard on Wednesday on an 80 foot racing yacht, Kialoa V, which was the fastest boat in the world in the early 90s. Obviously, I can't sail with my condition.

After getting on a decrepit boat with a crazy captain, braving the Bermuda triangle through gale force winds and thunder squalls, being stranded in Bermuda, climbing sharp volcanic ocean rocks and diving from the top and sailing over to long island, it is kind of ironic that the place I get hurt is in a car accident 2 hours from home. Even further back, the plan was to sail to Europe this summer. But really, I flew away from home, then sailed back. Kind of funny the way life works. Regardless, I wanted an experience and an experience was what I got. Unfortunately, my part of this adventure will be ending in a few days after I go back to Greenport, Long Island to collect my belongings and go home. Tawfer isn't sure what he is going to do, but you can keep checking here to find out if he plans on continuing this adventure.

I want to say to everyone thanks so much for following us and the comments. It was really fun telling you the stories and sharing the pictures, and I hope you enjoyed them. There are prospects of another attempt to cross the Atlantic by sailboat in May of 2010. If it happens, we will be sure to continue this site and blog then. We'll let you know.

I'm on a Bus!

I'm on a bus, with wireless internet!

The trip from Bermuda to Long Island was long and difficult. The weather was terrible and the seas were miserable. The video below is a good example of how awful and difficult the passage really was. If sailing is always this hard, I'll never do it again.

The Difficulties of Sailing from Topher Wright on Vimeo.

:P

Seasickness

The day before heading out on Sea Tryst, I began to feel an ever-so-slight itch in the back of my throat. An ominous itch. An itch that would later turn into an infection. Great.

The next morning as we set to leave for New York, I woke up with a sore throat for the record books; I must have swallowed a porcupine. Not without a full body wince could I swallow, and eating was near impossible sans morphine. Great.

We motored through the channel towards the ocean and as I stood on the bow I began to feel queasy.
"We haven't even hit the seas yet!" I thought as I cursed bacteria's name verbally. On Sly Dog, I felt an uneasy stomach at the worst; sailors might say that I was 'stomach aware.' However, in completely calm seas, on Sea Tryst, I could feel seasickness coming on.

If you are about to eat a meal, or have just eaten, you may want to skip the next few paragraphs.

I was swallowing lots of mucus from the sore throat and as the pressure built in my sinuses, the problems evolved in my stomach. What might be described as an upset stomach turned into what might be described as a 'very aware' stomach. So aware, in fact, that it decided I should throw up - with gusto. The dry heaves kicked in for awhile afterwards. While I convulsed I enjoyed an up close view of the ocean, my eyes watering into the sea.

Being seasick is truly an awful feeling. On deck, it is tolerable as a severe stomach ache; there is very much difficulty motivating oneself to move, and falling asleep is out of the question.

Below deck, the stomach ache is joined, with enthusiasm, by a chorus of vertigo, muscle weakness, headache, and a general unwillingness to survive the day. I could not concentrate on anything and morale was at a lifetime low - being trapped on a surface, ever moving, that your body cannot stand, with no hope of reaching land for at least 4 days.

As I sat below, unable to fully comprehend my own misery, my shipmates were dashing about the deck, keeping the boat in motion.

"No I want to help, really! I do!" I wanted to scream, but my throat hurt too much and my brain was no longer connected to my vagus nerve. I wanted Mike to know that on the other boat I was useful. I helped to sail and told jokes and watched the sky. Now I just watched the ground in front of me, searching for the fast forward button.

Next, I was standing in a long stretching hallway with plain walls, and people I knew loitering about. I motioned to walk and greet them but my legs felt like rubber and I collapsed to the ground. My head spun, my joints creaked, and the bright hallway faded into a gray swirling mass of unidentifiable objects.

Then I woke up. I don't often remember my dreams, but this one struck me ironic enough to remember. My head was still spinning and my legs did feel like rubber. It is difficult enough to move about a sailboat when you are not sick.

"What type of cursed boat is this where the symptoms of sickness seep into my dreams.." I mumbled to a passing sailor. I think that I was actually going insane. I sat up, and, just as I was convincing myself that I was feeling better, the door to the head swung open, I caught a whiff of that "bathroom" smell, and I ran up on deck to throw up again.

After sharing the rest of my lunch with the sea, I lay back down, and, exausted, I quietly wished for death.

Fun Shots

I am really happy with the pictures I got on the sail over to Greenport, Long Island. Ever since getting on a boat I've had a shot in my head, and I was unable to get it on the last boat we were on. However, I had the opportunity on this trip to get it, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Check it out:

Next up - on our last night before landfall I got the opportunity to climb the mizzen mast (the rear, smaller mast on a ketch rig) during sunset. Being 40 feet above the water and traveling 7 knots is one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done. As I reached the top of the mast, I couldn't help but let out a huge scream. It felt kind of corny, but every cell in my diaphragm was itching to let it out. Soon, the difficulty of being in such a place set in. Every small movement in the boat translates to a large sway up there. Even in good weather you have to hold on for dear life except I was holding on for dear life with one hand, and holding onto my camera with the other as the boat bucked back and forth and I got pounded into the mast. My left arm was responsible for controlling my upper body, and each of my big toes was wrapping around a cable in the rigging for lower stability. My right arm was responsible for taking pictures, the safety of my camera and tying safety ropes in case soemthing broke. Mike got a cool shot of Tawfer and I from the bottom of the mast with Tawfer's camera.

While holding on for dear life, I managed to snap a few good shots. One of them is below, but check out my Flickr page for larger versions and the rest of them. As always, comments and criticism are always appreciated.

Excited

We walked onto Sea Tryst for the first time.

Canaan, Xanadu, and the Playboy Mansion; like Abraham, Kubla Khan, and a pubescent teen, our eyes were opened and our worldly desires fulfilled.

"This is what a sailboat should look like!"

The cabin was dry, organized, and odor free. The head (bathroom) actually functions, and it looks as if the sink works as well. This is awesome.

We were not aware that it was possible to be comfortable on a sailboat. Also, this one doesn't have ripped sails and a broken engine.

"Is that a guitar?" Mike plays guitar.

A working bathroom, some food, a dry place to sleep, and a guitar, what else could I possibly ask for?

"I'm in" I said with resolution, then I wrote a haiku:

The ocean is calling me
Land is so boring
It's better when the floor moves

Well, the boat is nice but my poetry needs some work.