November 16th  

So close…so so so close…trying not to think too much about land  because we still have two night watches to go but we are so close… 

Today was a beautiful day. Lovely sailing, it has been days since we had to motor, the swell has died down and the ups and downs became much less dramatic over the day. We had several light rain showers come through with some gusting and spinning winds before the rain, but then quickly reorganized back to the steady NE wind at about 15 knots. We’ve been beam reaching for days but now that the swell is less it’s basically perfect conditions. After each rain shower we were treated with a rainbow….today was a day of gratuitous rainbows. I’m talking like 8 or 9 rainbows. We lost count.

Repeat. We lost count of how many rainbows we saw on our day of perfect sailing. Pinch me.

Like our swimming day, this day felt almost like a relief, like a reminder that sailing can be lovely, beautiful, relaxing, comfortable, and fun…these beliefs had been seriously challenged at times during these two consecutive passages. Not to the point where we have had regrets…but definitely to the point where we wondered if we would do the same route at the same time again. And there were moments where we both thought “……why the eff are we doing this?”

So today was a booster shot in the ass for Greg and I – which is timely since we are about to enter another new phase which will include some actual travelling, something we haven’t done yet. We have sailed the boat from place to place but we haven’t yet explored any of these places really. I’ve spent a large amount of time working since we moved to the boat – it’s good to have the work, no complaints – it does mean though that when I had free time is was more focused on getting the boat ready and positioned for passage, and not about exploring where ever we were. But now as we approach the islands of the Caribbean this will shift a bit. I’m not really sure how yet, work will continue, but there will be exploration as well. So today, with the beautiful breeze behind us, and rainbows all around us, we finally got a bit more serious about where we were going to go and what we were going to do for the next few weeks. There will be a balance of course. These passages were done / will be done on a 3-week vacation from work (which will include several days on arrival while we still have our family with us) however, I do have commitments and deadlines to be met when that 3-week vacation ends. I need to find a balance between work and exploration….otherwise I’ve just basically moved by office to a boat and I’m not sure that’s the intent of all of this.

 Anyway, nothing like a day of peaceful sailing to provide the space in my brain to actually think about something other than “what was that noise?” and “why did we just lurch like that?” and “how many pairs of underwear do I have left” and “omg why does Grace smell so bad?” and “what is the new weather forecast?” and “when is the swell supposed to come down?” and “what can I make for dinner and not burn myself?” and “is there any food starting to look funky that I need to deal with right now”? and so on.

Tomorrow will bring our last full day of sailing…winds are supposed to die down and basically disappear so I looks like it will be a motor to the destination of Marigot Bay, St. Martin. Our ETA is dawn on Monday morning, which we will time such that we have daylight to enter the anchorage. I have a bottle of champagne in the fridge and the kids have a bathing suit picked out to wear when they jump overboard.

One more day.

Much love,

M