SailBlog

I am excited to be nearing the International date line today...I will cross it tomorrow..another milestone of note. I guess I will be doing Jan 3,today, again once past the magic space/time continuum induced by the mystical 'line'. I will be 7 hours behind EST, counting down the time zones to Cape Horn, actually in EST...

Oh the fog... it is finally lifting and the wind came up around 0700 local. I am moving nicely in a S breeze, heading ENE toward the 47*44' 179*E wypt. still hoping for a Bounty sight seeing option. This is thrilling for me. I have never seen penguins in the wild and have been dreaming of going to an antarctic wildlife habitat ... it is on the top of my bucket list...so it would be amazing if I could view the islands... but it is not worth taking any risks... One of these days I will have to join an expedition and see them all up close. Even if I do not see the islands themselves, I am sure that crossing just a mile or two north of them safely, I will see more birds and hopefully some sea mammals in the waters... I have been seeing sargasso type weeds in the waters... other 'signs' of land. They have large leaves and larger pods...They remind me of the weeds I was gently laid up against on my way out of the Beagle Channel my first circ.getting a better view of an outcroppin g ...the bed made for an easy recovery. I have also seen single pieces a type of 'cone' like vegetation floating. One here and there.

My hope is that we make a sighting before dark sets in, if not by then...I will get north of the 'rock' at 47*43' and onward toward higher ground and warmer temperatures...it is 9.4*c today... that is 48.92*f... too cold... and foggy, wet, humidity of 100%...and now the wind is building...so the wind chill is ...ugh... I am such a baby...I am just making fun now...you have all heard my 'cold' pleas to adnauseaum...me too. But not sure that I will really find warm...just a lesser cold and an occasional spring day. But it is all temporary, just for the moment, as I am only 6 weeks from Cape Horn and will finally get out of the Southern Ocean at 40*S heading north.

With the thick foggy soft Irish rain, I collected a meal or two of water from the main sail... There has been a hint of talk of rain from the forecasts, but I think that the five minutes of pattering this morning may be all I will see for this front. The boundary is passing and the winds and seas building already. I have some friendly eyes, out in cyber-land, keeping an eye out for precipitation potential for me. I have plenty of water to the Horn... and possibly enough to the ITC but... it will be close if I don't get one more good fill.

Looks like some fast sailing on to the Horn... I see on the new Grib that there is a whopper of a low on its way in the Southern Ocean from the west... I am so so very glad to have missed this one south of the Islands as the banks south of NZ are fully under gale force winds. The storm appears to be maturing, coinciding with where I will be along my progress east ...though the center nearer 55*S, the frontal boundary is far reaching to the north, all the way to 40*S. So.. Weather remains the hot topic at hand... but not an issue today. I have good winds for the next 4 days. I should make nearly another time zone. Counting them down.

I am feeling rested after this break from the intense motion below during the week of galing weather...by yesterday evening, I even settled down to play some guitar, actually relaxing and feeling some creative energy returning...it is amazing how long it takes me to 'wind down ' from the high energy of it all to just 'live' on board. Plus it is good to have the emotional vortex of the holidays behind, both as this holiday season was such a milestone for my entire journey, approximately midway, and just the normal outpour of gratuities and embraces experienced from afar are such an incredible blessing yet, require a recovery phase as life returns to having a more central focus... for me, completing my books and getting home.

The Birds are back after abandoning me in the fog, and calm... My white diamond Albatross, Zebjaelrhemikchar... lofting about and careening nearly into the cockpit on his rounds. A few weeks ago, amidst a dark night on the water, I saw remarkably large, nearly a foot long by 6" wide, briliant phosphorescent rectangular shaped 'animals' or some kind of sea creature, with long hairy cilia type fringes all the way around them with long tentacles. I tried to grab one out of the water...as I was so curious as to what it was and I had never seen that shape or size of creatures floating on the surface, in all my ocean miles. Today, I was in the cockpit when I turned to port, and there was an Albatross sitting on the surface with, what looked like spahetti hanging out of its beak...long stringing white slimy gelatenous type substance and I thought of the creatures I had seen... I am quite sure that, whatever they are, they are food for the Albatrosses... I saw so many of t he creat ures that one night and strangely, not since... though I don't spend much time on deck at night these days except to tend to sail changes, getting glmpses of the stars.

A fabulous benefit of warmer temperatures will be the accessibility to being on deck... I so miss it, and truly I am now feeling cooped up below, my back and derriere are sore from sitting, though I get up and do rounds, one foot to the sink, two feet and three steps to the pee bucket and back down..then up again to toss... maybe a full circumference of the salon floor, 10 feet if I have to open the farther 'food bin' for yet another try at finding something to 'munch' on, just to see the same collection of protected stores. I am afraid I have been to zealous for the popcorn and now I will have to wait until nearer to Cape Horn for the last bit of ration left... The temps there are going to plummet again into the 40s and that hot popcorn pan in my lap is going to be a much needed lap warmer upper.

Today is a real sailing day...the winds are not steady, gusting and lulling. As I am trying to keep a much more precise course making way to the Bounty, I am making more frequent adjustments and finding myself having to reduce sail so the steering vane is not so challenged...normally, the gusts and lulls average themselves out so I don't micro manage it, but with land near, only 40nm away, I am exhilerated enough to be on watch. The tracker is the life saver...without it, and with such limited sunshine for a celestial sight, I would not make an attempt at seeing Bounty...maybe on a fully sunny day with visibility .. but not today...

And life at sea goes on... I am finding it much easier to bask in presence as my life is now more focused on my world here... the ocean beckons to me when I look out over the surface whether calmed or wind blown in tumult... I hear the whisper, a sound drawing my attention to the presence within me... this is what I came here for and I am becoming more aware of the shortness of time until I return to land...and my desire to sequester myself to the sounds of the ocean's callings, Life's voice within counseling and teaching, the need to write down the conversations, the illuminations... it is a rare rare things to be so near this opportunity, and I feel myself letting it slip away. So...over the next weeks, on my way to the Horn, I am looking forward to drawing myself away from the computer screen and closer to the sea and energy surrounding me here. I have my tape recorder I can use to capture my thoughts, to be typed later...

As much as I want my books to be written when I return, there is no way for me to capture the presence here if I am typing and sitting below before the plasma screen. But I will do my blogs as they 'are the book' as they log my journey in every way...

I am loving John O'Donohue's chapter in Divine Beauty on Imagination: I have a vivid active imagination... a true daydreamer ... to the extreme maybe. I love this... " You are not simply there: you imagine who you are". And he quotes from Hamlet " this above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

How profound...and yet how challenging...to be true to our own self, when we don't know who that self is...it is being created moment by moment, cycles and seasons, phases of enlightment and the depths of valleys of disillusionment. I so look to this very truth as a goal as when I am can be true to my true identity, not my ego trying to be 'someone for everyone else'... the cameleon that we play, the roles we try to fill, the providers and caregivers that life requires of us... There are so many forces that draw us away from being true to our self, rather true to the person that life's situations demand us to be. it is only when we discover our true identity that we can begin to remain true to our self, and then find the blissful pathway to total inward peace, fulfilling our vision and purpose, loving from the source of Life's infinite energy... I am pressing on...

Keepin On Sailin On Caring... How wonderous a privilege it is to be here! Bob has opened my heart over and over encouraging me to get everything I can from this experience, no matter if i need to stop blogging, to leave the emails unanswered... I came here to commune, listen, to be changed in the midst of Life's energy... And he loves me so- he has faith for my journey, this ultimate gift of sailing the world to engraciate me with all I came to find. It is time...NOW.

Bounty Update:

An amazing gorgeous Cape Petrel....our photo... just came circling the boat so so close several times, as if to console me... as it seems that timing has just not worked out to enjoy a sightseeing opportunity on Bounty Island tonight.

At this time, I am still 20nm from the west edge and at a latitude a mile north of the banks, 2 miles north of the northern island...at 47*42'S, 178*50' E. The winds have escalated and are gusting over 30kts from due S...maybe pulling to SSE just a bit with building seas. It is just too rough to have any valuable view of the islands at this point, and it it is most likely that I will arrive at the very end of dusk as it is already 1730. I am staying in proximity to the islands as best I can endure, with the winds just forward of the beam, so that I might to see some wildlife and maybe a distant silhouette of the islands. Timing just did not work out... I will have to fulfill my bucket list penguin retreat at another time.

Once I pass 179*05*E, I will head NE and see if I can get a better angle on this gale... once I turn downwind a bit I will gain at least 1kt of speed, maybe 1.5kts. and I will be heading toward warmer grounds. I am READY!

Tomorrow, I get to do January 3rd... One more time!!! In the morning, I will be 7 hours behind EST.

Fairest of Winds and the Love of the Ocean Only Gratitude Donna

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