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Adagio - Day by Day



This is a writing from earlier in the Rally that was saved for now.

THIS Night:

The canopy of stars is perfectly stretched from horizon to horizon, The line of demarcation between sea and sky is impossible to ascertain, such that a rising star is easily mistaken for the mast light of a distant ship. The brighter stars cast silvery streaks of blue-white light across the water much as the moon does on dimmer nights. The Milky way splays across the sky separating hemispheres of stars rich in color and lustre and interspersed with faint patches of fuzz that are clusters of thousands of other stars of the faint glowing remnants of exploded ones.

The wind is absent, the air calm and quiet disturbed only by our passage. Our sails move only in the breeze that we've created moving forward under our internal power; the diesel engine humming below our feet providing smooth, constant thrust from the propeller. We are the only thing disturbing the sea, air and quiet for many, many miles. The sea is glassy smooth inducing an effect that the ocean here is somehow smaller and more localized than it really is. Starlight isn't the only source of illumination as our bow pushes through the water and her wake disturbs thousands of bioluminescent sleepers who protest in sparkling showers of bright blue lights.

The radios are silent, the RADAR and AIS are clear. We are more than 700 miles into our journey and nearing the halfway point. This night has been the quietest thus far and it reminds why it's so hard to explain offshore sailing to those that haven't experienced it, or something like it such as piloting a plane. In either case one is completely removed from the mundane and dances with the remarkable.

Tonight the sea shows us her hand of beauty and peace, and this passer-by muses, fascinated by the surreal and quiet;y awed to be here as a witness.

THAT Day:

Tonight she shows us the other hand. Beautiful and magnificent in itself, it holds no quarter for the faint of heart nor concern for either their comfort or opinions. Tonight the sea and the winds argue for dominion of the line that separates them; the wind gusts and twists in vain trying to remove the seas from in front of them. The seas respond by piling fortifying mountains of water and churning waves that try to claw into the sky's domain.

Aboard, we witness this dance while riding and rolling and crashing against the waves and furtively clawing our forward progress against the incessant wind. There is no sleep below tonight, The sails and motor together work to give us slow progress through pounding, rolling, twisting waves and squally, gusty winds. The hull shudders with the impacts of the steep-walled and perfectly spaced waves, but only I complain. I find that I am along for the ride. Whatever modicum of control I think I have is largely illusory and while we are completely safe aboard this time, the sea clearly proclaims that SHE is in control and whether conditions soften or get worse, our presence there is of no consequence.

It is on nights like these that superstitions are born paid homage. There is little else to do except to patiently bear witness to the awesome and uncontestable power of nature and to patiently await the next day's dance.

I am lucky to be here. It helps me understand what is important, what matters most, where I stand in the universe and exactly how lucky I am to be a part of, and in concert with, something so much bigger than myself.

Gary
Adagio

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