First Day at Sea

As I stare out at the sea watching the small waves catching the sun making the ocean glisten and sparkle, my mind wanders back to the snow covered hill at the cottage in Muskoka where there too the sun was glistening and sparkling off the pure, white snow. A special moment with my Dad as we made our way through two feet of untouched snow down to the cottage, the air crisp and cold in our nostrils, the sun warm on our faces. The trees looked decorated with snow, every branch with a bit of snow icing on the top. The smaller bushes had little clumps of snow stuck in the corners of the twigs, giving the appearance of little fluffs of cotton hung in midair. The sky was the bluest blue, the kind you only see on a cold winter day.

It is our watch, Christian and I, on our first day at sea. We take six hour watches in teams of two. We have the 2 till 8 watch, which means that Anna and Jens will take the 8 till 2 watch. During our six hour watch, we decide between us who wants to or needs to sleep for an hour or two. But sleeping or not, you have to be ready to step in, so that usually means napping in the cockpit rather than down below. Right now, Anna and Jens are down below, getting some sleep before dinner and the start of their shift at eight. Christian is in the cockpit napping in the late afternoon sun. And I am behind the helm.

It's a peaceful first day out. SEGWUN has been in port for too long. We arrived to Ecuador in late November, so it is high time we set back out to sea. The wind is on our nose, but we expect it to be coming from a southerly direction as we move further from the coast making our way westward. The sea is calm today and so far we have seen several large turtles floating along, a few ships passing in the distance and a lot of small fishing boats appearing on the top of the swells. The land slowly slips out of sight on the horizon behind us.

Sure enough, the wind shifts and picks up a little. We reacquaint ourselves with the rigging for the sails and as soon as the wind picks up enough, we turn off the engine and raise the genoa and the main sail. We have less speed now, running at about 4 knots per hour compared to the 5.7 when motoring, but it is also nice and quiet. We are on our way to Galapagos.