Boom and Doom

Purpley dusk.

For a second I thought he was dead, lying there face up right below the boom in his sailing harness. I’d come out of the cabin from an attempt to rest to find him splayed there across the cockpit. It had to be nearly 3am.

“Nalu! Nalu!” I leapt over the wheel and shook him.

“What! What! Huh?” My crewmate sat up spouting.

“Oh thank God you’re alright! I thought you’d been knocked out by the boom!”

“No, I was just so tired…”It didn’t matter that he’d fallen asleep on watch as long as he was alive! I had already flashed to how I was going to tell his parents…

Neither of us had really slept all night. The seas and current were against us and we were caught in a shadow of shifty winds behind the approaching island. I’d get the sails set and lay down to rest and five minutes later they were flapping again. “Go down and try to rest for a while. You scared me wide awake!” I said. Before I could finish my sentence, he was flat again on the wet cushion, sound asleep. I hauled the mainsheet in tighter, put on my headphones, and watched the Sothern Cross sink under the western horizon.

******NOTE: I just answered a few questions for Liquid Salt, online Surf Magazine…to have a look go to:

http://www.liquidsaltmag.com/2010/07/liz-clark/