Ace of Spades
31 March 2012 | Solomons to Majuro
Johnny
As the sunset into the darkening horizon, clouds started swallowing up the last bit of sky Rob and I would see for the next three days and three nights. After dinner I went to brush my teeth and knocked over my deck of playing cards I keep next to my bed. All over the floor the cards fell. *&^%$ I cursed practicing my sailing swearing that Rob is trying to help me with. Looking at the cards I gasped as cold darkness penetrated the air. All the cards were face down except the ace of spades, the death card. At that moment a gust of 30 plus winds shook the boat and I heard *&^%$ from Rob who I knew wasn't practicing his sailor swears but was yelling them in full heart. The next three days and nights are only a series of nightmares I wish bury once we land. So much unreality that everything seems like a blur of hell. The black waves only illuminated by lighting to show their blackened soles seem to want to swallow us at every moment. Every second could be our last as I watched Rob brave his way to the front of the boat to try and save the Genoa sail. Not to any avail could we save it for the wind, rain, and fire held us at bay. *^&% Im going to die I thought constantly as we reached speeds of 9.4 knots while getting shook by four meter waves and 30 plus winds. Our Genoa sail eventually tore and played its dying song by flapping maddening into the chaos. The next day our port lower shroud also broke down crashing to the deck. A few hours later Rob stumbled into his room finding the stuffing box spurting out water. Hallelujah thank the baby Jesus and the Lamas were alive and made it through all that. Now we are finally waking up from the nightmare and recovering. All day has been great and we haven't seen a squall all today. We fixed the problem with the main sail by taking the good shroud on the starboard side and putting it on the port side. So everything is good and I'm super grateful to be alive and have nice weather again. Today ended with an awesome red sunset. And a crescent moon is out illuminating the sterling blue waves now with more of a happy dream feeling.