63 hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds: Safe in Sardinia

Passage to Island of Sardinia, Italy---Day One; How can you top swimming in the middle of the sea below an active volcano, watching the eruptions of the volcano Stromboli, seeing the Green Flash and a gorgeous sunset?

Maybe with a first night where everything was perfect: a sea that had turned to looking like oil with barely a roll A slight wind behind us. No moon visible making the stars scream out for us to watch them. A night of entertainment for those stars to show off with the best Meteor shower I’ve ever seen---long streaks of light trailed the star as it dashed through the sky… and another, and another, and another.

We had paired up with the new crew. Theo and I were assigned the Midnight to 3am and the 6am to 9am shifts. For someone’s first experience crewing, he was spoiled by this first experience. Everything was perfect and amazingly beautiful. All the ferry’s passed during the earlier watch and we were left with only enjoying the beauty around us. Then as if on cue, Dolphins appeared jumping completely out of the water. Small Mediterranean Dolphins are about half the size of the Florida variety. These are a deep black with speckles around their belly’s blending into a pure white underbelly. This pod had about 8 and appeared to be feeding. I watched as the boat rocked past them in pure appreciation for their existence.

Pairing up on watch is a very different experience than when soloing. Especially when you don’t know the person you are paired with. Theo had many great stories to make time fly. And in those early morning hours I gently asked if he could talk about being in the Twin Towers area on 9-11. As a Wallstreet Journal reporter, he had gone into work early for him, to their office located in the smaller building across the street that later collapsed. He shared his step by step actions and emotions of that day of confusion and escape. Myself, having been largely isolated from personal exposure to stories, especially in person, listened with disbelief. It all came back. As an observer of the tragedy, how helpless I felt watching it all from the safety of my front room TV. And how for days, life seemed to run in slow motion. And here, under the stars in the middle of the Med, a real survivor told me his story. How many stories are out there? How much it has changed in our world! Now, from an international viewpoint, effecting even little things like buying a cell phone in a foreign county, passports are photo copied and special papers are signed.

But then we turned our attention back on the world around us. Nature engulfed the boat and the stars above us, consistent from ancient times, shown bright. Water hit the side of the boat and phosphorous quietly exploded into neon patches and sparks of bright green color.

At that moment, in all its beauty, the world felt really safe.

Day two: Solo night watch from 9pm to 1am, and then from 9am till others awake. I really had a hard time staying awake in the night. I-pod music, cookies, dancing in the cockpit, setting my watch timer…I was still just tired. A few ships far away kept my attention but 1am could not come soon enough. Sailing down wind we had put out the portside pole to keep the Yankee sail in place. It worked for most of the night and we slipped though the water toward our destination. A waxing sliver of the moon appeared early in the evening. There was enough wind for 5 total hours to turn off the motor and truly sail. The boat gets very quiet as it glides through the water under sail. It’s my favorite. I love sailing, my soul sours up with the sails. All the problems fade and it’s just you and the sails catching the wind and moving you forward, farther still from any sad past.

Day three: a lazy day of bumming around the boat. Talking, reading, deciding what to eat. Then watches were divided up. Due to a change in weather and possible thunderstorms, we decided to pair up again with our new crew. Theo and I took the 9pm to midnight and 3am to 6am shifts. But this time, it was different. The broken sleep pattern had caught up to all of us and waiting for the clock to turn to midnight seems like a lifetime. The night was overcast and gloomy and a cold front had moved in dropping temperatures enough to need jackets in the cockpit. The 3am wakeup came too early but I felt refreshed…until I reached the cockpit to relieve The Captain and Jen only to find it raining. Ugh. The wind was gusting but lucky for us, the other watch took the brunt of the squall and everything started settling down after 3:30 m. We deciphered one freighter who passed us on the starboard side and then started seeing the lights of Sardinia. Aching for 6am to get here, it finally did and we were relieved to dive into our bunks for a little more sleep. In the late morning we arrived at had anchor down at Callasetta, Sardinia. Exactly 63 hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds. (yes, I was counting).

Sleeping in 3 hour patches does strange things to your body clock. But considering the destination, it is always worth it.