Day 14 June 23, 2010 , 5pm - two weeks and 1 ½ hours at sea!

We are now over the 2000 nautical mile mark, with less than 900 miles to go. If the winds persist, we might be there as early as 4 days from now! We've been having, generally speaking, a boisterous time of it. For about a week and a half now, the winds have been blowing no less than 15 knots (27km/hr - 17m/hr) and have for the last 36 hours been blowing about 25-35 knots (40-60km/hr - 25-40m/hr) sustained. The swell has grown from 10-12 feet to about 20 feet. Yet, our faithful Gromit is handling things beautifully! Are we worried, anxious or concerned? Surprisingly not. It is amazing how quickly we, not only adjust to new conditions, but don't even notice them anymore! The other morning, early, when I had just come on watch, I was facing the back of Gromit watching the swell run towards us. Here's what I wrote in my journal:

There is something enormously powerful about watching an enormous swell build at the rear of the boat. The swell rolls and builds and rolls and builds, until it completely obscures the horizon. There is nothing to be seen but a wall of water. And just as you think it is bound to spill onto the back deck of our faithful Gromit, under it slips - without really ever coming close enough for concern. I've said it before and I'm glad that I can continue to say it still, that I love being out here. I can honestly still say, that I feel no worry, no anxiety, just awe. The ocean is beautiful.

UPDATES:

***Liam has caught his second fish. Another mahi-mahi. It was about 5 pounds and quite a tasty morsel for us. Our dinner plans can change in an instant around here. All we have to do is hear the zing of the line racing out behind the boat and we know that what we thought we were having for dinner might not be!

***On June 21, we all wished each other a happy beginning of winter (I made the mistake of wishing everyone a 'happy summer', but was quickly corrected, as we are in the southern hemisphere now!).

***The kids continue to work hard on school and are still hoping to finish most, if not all, of this term by the time we arrive.

***We celebrated Father's Day with spaghetti carbonara and cheesecake. Michael's favourites!

***The boat is a mess!!!!! It's like there is some psycho magnetic force whose main goal is to keep us unbalanced by pulling willy-nilly at us with every move we make. I marvel at the forces that are at play in this swaying, rocking, heeling, yawing and bouncing vessel. We all have bruises to prove this is true! And, don't leave anything lying around! A new moto perhaps: stow, or it will come back at you!!!!

***The Gromiteer kids talk and play on the VHF radio with the Arteman kids. It is amazing to hear them. They play battleship, guessing games like I Spy and 20 questions. They ask each other all kinds of 'what's your favourite..?' or 'If you could/had/..what would you..?' type of games. They exchange stories, info on what movies they've watched, what books they are reading, what they've baked or are going to bake. In fact, Amelia and Maia, baked bread together the other day. Amelia read the recipe and both girls, on their respective boats, baked the most yummy whole wheat bread I've ever tasted. Zoe and Amelia baked pies a few days after that. I marvel at the creativity! So, that's it for another few days. It is pretty exciting to know that we are now only, if the winds hold out, mere days away...