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Sialia - Day 11



Day 11

We are closing in on Tortola at lightning speed – 8 knots – thanks to consistent 30-35 knot winds since yesterday afternoon. We are within 180 miles right now. So we’ll be there sometime tomorrow. Unfortunately Amy and I are booked on the first flight out Tuesday morning, so we will barely have a chance to visit at all. Sialia will be there for a while so we just have to plan to come back.

Today is beautiful and sunny but its still blowing 35 and the seas are 12-18 ft rollers so we are all wearing our harnesses and on watch. Its not unpleasant, the boat handles it quite well. There were several periods last night of sustained 40 knot winds. It makes moving around challenging but otherwise there has been nothing eventful to report. We baked fresh scones last night and that was a challenge. I’m thinking of writing a cook book called ’45 degree chef’. Tonight we have chicken Florentine, Mexican corn, rice and peas. And while the oven is on we’ll bake muffins for breakfast tomorrow morning. It seems insane that I'm planning this with such care so much ahead of time, but the logisitcs of such things as cooking a multi dish meal with the boat rocking and rolling like this demand careful planning. 

Tonight is the last night of sleeping in two and a half to three hour shifts. I am eagerly awaiting the end of a dream I’ve had for days now.

I am sitting looking at photos on an ipad. The hand showing them to me glows with phosphorescence and deftly opens the photo wider and wider until he reaches out to invite me in. Then, inevitably, at that moment a wet cold hand shakes my foot and says “you’re up”. Seriously. At least six nights in a row now.

Last night I was kind of cheesed about it. But then, as I stood in the companionway and grabbed the rail to pull myself up against the heel of the boat, I looked up. And a shooting star raced across the night sky. I opened my mouth to say something but Jim and Amy both said at once that they’d seen several already.

I stared and stared and made sure my heart was as open as the wide ocean we are sailing and when just the right one flashed again I made my wish. 

As each of us goes about trying to get ready to end this amazing journey tomorrow I’ve asked that we all think about our wishes and tonight we’ll all have that to look forward to on the last of our 12 nights of interrupted sleep. 

For wishes are not unlike adventures like this. If we don’t dare dream them, they can’t come true.


See you soon

Paula

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