FIRST BIG CROSSING: Day 4

Day 4
24 hours-75 nautical miles

The wind died completely. The seas, however came in a brutish, rolling slop from all directions. We dropped the sails and waited, clutching onto whatever we could, as the boat tossed from rail to rail. The noise was unbelievable. Fresh pears, stowed improperly  in a bowl (naive, optimism), were literally pulverized into mush.

You can simulate what our experience was like. All you will need to do this is:
1 bathtub
1 Rubber Ducky.
2 hyper-active toddlers.

Follow these simple steps:

Fill bathtub.
Place a Toddler (screaming or laughing-either will do) at each end of the tub.
Put Rubber Ducky in the center of the tub.
Whatever Rubber Ducky is doing, is what WE were doing yesterday-for ten hours.

When Insanity reared it's over-tired head, Jon decried (to our collective joy) that we should turn the engine on for one hour and motor South out of the vortex.
Hunter tore off half her clothes and stood on deck yowling to the wind Gods to find favor with us again.
It worked.
11 miles further South we found the wind.

Up went the sails and we clipped on, close-hauled, at a respectable 5.5 knots for the rest of the night.

Out here in the big yonder, one is free to call on any personal deity that might fit the bill.

They say there are no atheists in foxholes and I believe there are no agnostics ferrying children over the seas in a small boat.

I like to place my bets with my angels.

Sometimes, I ask my dad to look in.
In the event that he is still waiting in line at those pearly gates for the final judgment..I'm hoping I can sway the jury. He was always a good dad at sea.

I also talk to Jerry Garcia, quite a bit. I don't know what he ever had to do with the ocean, but I figure anyone who dedicated a life to making such a great party on Earth for forty years, must have some pull. When things get gnarly out here, i put on a little bluegrass and let him sing down the seas. This morning, as I watched the sunrise, the clouds were Easter-Bunny pink and the Sea looked like electric Kool-aid. I can't help thinking, Ol' Uncle Jerry was up there, helping someone paint this canvas just for me...
And the message in the sky, was to keep on Truckin'.


Kai's ocean trivia:
Plastic waste kills up to 1 million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year. Plastic remains in our ecosystem for years, harming thousands of sea creatures everyday.

Hunter's hints to help our seas:
I want to give you some tips of what you can do in every day life to help our seas..
#1
REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT BY...
WALKING!
TRY NOT TO DRIVE IF YOU CAN WALK THERE.
and while your walking, you can think about our Ocean!