Darold has taken the majority of the night watch.  Again.  I wake up to find that the boat’s motion is less severe, the sound of the howling wind is nearly gone and it seems like the worst is over.  I come up into the cockpit and Darold pats me on the shoulder and says, “Papagayos all gone!”  He is playing music in the cockpit and puts on “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young then says to me, “You can appreciate this song more now.”  Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it was the relief of this bad weather being over, but I begin to cry.  Keep in mind – I’m not a crier.  I cry once a year when watching “Fred Claus” during the scene where they sing Silent Night and run to the snow globe (don’t judge me.) I cry at funerals.  That’s pretty much it.   Forget that the song is about sailing in a different hemisphere and has to do with looking for the right woman – I connect with it.  I feel it.   Yes, I have been around the world too.  I think about how many times I have fallen.  I will survive being tested.

The rest of the day is filled (for me) with relief and recovery.   Around mid-day we see another sailboat on our AIS.  Another sailboat!  All the other ships we pass are cargo ships, tankers and the occasional fishing boat.  We are going to be within less than a half mile from each other, two ships passing in the day.  Amazing that we have a whole ocean and two sailboats can pass so close to each other.  We hail the boat on the radio and swap stories.  He is three weeks out of Panama and has had no wind.  We tell him that his fortune may be about to change…

We pass the rest of the day in exhausted recovery.  Just when you think you’re safe…oh the weather, she has more in store for you.  You see, on land you think about the weather as it might interfere with your plans.  Do I take an umbrella to work?  Can I wear my suede shoes?  At sea, you think about weather as it might interfere with your life.  We make fun of the weatherman because he (or she) is so often wrong.  In my book, the meteorologist  is  to be revered.  Part scientist, part artist .  Continually struggling to understand something that defies understanding.

On Darold’s watch that night, he comes down below because he thinks it will be safer because of all the lightening he’s seeing.  Nice..