Its midnight, May 8th, Matt is sleeping on the cockpit besides me, Richard is down bellow getting his last hour of snooze before he takes over the watch and the girls are spread out in the V-birth legs and arms over each other’s faces. I have been here for a couple of hours shuffling music on the Ipod and being bombarded with thoughts of what should be blogged about. I debate weather to turn on the computer, I don’t want to affect my watch, but I cant just stare at the horizon for too long especially when darkness makes it uninteresting. The stars have not change much since the last time I look, no wonderful display of shooting stars, comets, UFO to see, no scary looking moon, nothing, nothing to impress my readers at this time. On the other hand, the wind, fresh air, smooth ride and nice music result very inspirational. So, here I am trying to recapitulate those thoughs, ideas, experiences and digging through my brain for witty words to keep a possible audience captivated.
We left the dock with the intention to spend one night out, anchored in one of the beautiful bays to give Richard one more experience in Mexican waters. We arrived in Maguey beach, clean the boat bottom that desperately needed it, swam a little more, Richard went spear fishing, but found nothing more that cute little fish with smiles, nothing to spear. It was dinner time and we were wiped from one side to the other making the stay an impossible idea. We pulled anchor and headed out to cross the feared, abominable Tehuantepec. Lets get it done!. We all agreed. About 30 miles passed Huatulco Matt had the bad idea of checking the bilge. Whistles, bells, red lights, flags, nervousness, foul words, silent prayers. It all went on! “There is water in the bilge, more than I have ever seen!” Matt said. The Captain then gave the order to turn around, we must get back to port. We arrived back in Santa Cruz at the Cruise ship terminal where we anchored for the night and spent the next day working on this issue. Well, I just observed as Richard and Matt worked diligently and professionally on it. My task don’t change much, I cook, I clean, I school, I keep cold water in the fridge and I just send my most positive vibes to whatever is being done. It is definitely easy having another capable man with us to help Matt. I think that if Richard was not here I would have been crying, frustrated with the boat, Matt’s frustration and my inability to help him and take care of the girls.
One of the many differences of being on land versus sailing is that every time you move from one place to another the thought of death is present, we must think of all the things that could go wrong and hurts us and decisions must be drastic. Just as I was doing my watch and everyone is sleeping down bellow, I heard a big bang and splash, something fell in the water, it was dark, the boat moving fast and I paralyzed, not knowing what to do, what we lost. When my senses returned I went quickly down bellow to make a head count. The kids first; checked, the men; checked. Everyone is still on board. Buckets; checked, kayaks; checked.. not many more things could have fallen. I still don’t know what it was, Matt thinks it could have been a flying fish that crashed onto the boat and bounce right back into the water. The terrifying thought was that it could have been me and know one would even realized until morning when breakfast is not served..haha. Well I hope earlier than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment