sailing in search of an endless sunrise
After I wrote, what I last wrote to you, the winds got light, sometimes non-existent. And whatever wind is out here, is coming from Ahe. We are only 23 nautical miles away, but let’s go ahead and call it 2,300. This is the longest two day sail of my life. I think Ahe must be …
It took forever to get around Rangiroa. So many tacks. We finally made it around at 11 pm last night. Trying to sail the direction from which the wind blows doubles, no triples, no quadruples, the length of any journey. We passed within a few nautical miles of the eastern edge of Rangiroa and I …
I stare at the sky for hours. I watch the sun drop into the ocean. I watch as the blue heaven flowers from yellow to tangerine to pink to grey to black. I watch the stars pop bright against the moonless night. Such a glow, I feel as if I was sailing into a cave …
The new moon is here or near to here and the tide all around the motus is lower than low. We walk from one to the other along the break. The coral sounds like glass beneath my feet. The shallow pools of water distort the coral beneath me and at the same time reflect the …
I found a baby gecko onboard today. I named her Beebee, after my cousin. She is brown. She is smaller than my pinky. She hides inside a wooden ledge above my nav station. I think she’s been with me since Tahiti. The waves went to sleep. Rain and rainbows come and go. The sun glints …
Brianna went to surf at sunrise. I wanted to go, but rain was building on the horizon and the voice inside my head shouted, “Don’t go, you must stay with the boat!” When it comes to sailing I listen well to that voice, it’s always ripe with wisdom. Not long after she leaves, the wind …
Tikehau is a multitude of magic. The water is the tone of turquoise. It is surrounded by coral and palm tree covered lands. Below the surface there is the beautiful and the dangerous and the beautifully dangerous; unicorn fish, sea snakes, white tip reef sharks, manta rays, puffer fish and a whole bunch of other …
It’s our third day at sea. I am bruised and blistered and skin is missing from my fingertips, but my head is rinsed. The wind and the sea blew all thoughts beyond the here and now away. We see the palm trees of Mataiva for one hot blue second. These atolls are all sunken volcanos …
The puffy clouds grow high all around. They look like people. They are my television. I see a giant, his knees are bent and his hands rest, palms up, upon them. There is a bird in his left hand. The bird sings the giant a song, “la-da-da-da-de, you are a human but I thought you …
We didn’t leave on Tuesday, we waited until Wednesday. The full moon left it’s effects on the sea inside of us for days. We are both Cancers- moody, soft, loving, crabs and our ruler is the moon. We are moon sisters. Anyway, the moon made us very yellow for some reason and there were ripples …
