It’s the Simple Wonders

Ahhhh, the pure bliss of light winds from the right direction…

I motored most of the night to lay some solid miles of ‘easting’. The bright moonlight and light winds eased me gently back into the rhythm of a night at sea…

The next morning, the sea was an enormous, regal blue sheet of silk billowing out in all directions. It felt so good to see nothing, absolutely nothing but calm ocean all around. By midday a puff of east wind rippled its surface, so I put up all our sail and we fell into slow but steady 3.5 knots upwind reach. With the engine off, the sounds of sea came alive—various high and low notes and tones of lapping waves against the hull played happily on my ears. Combined with whispers of wind, the stretch of the sails and lines, the churn of the wake, and the intermittent call of a passing seabird…it was a sea symphony all for me! I sat in silence for hours, filled with gratitude, overwhelmed with freedom, staring out at all that blue…that healing, fortifying, open blue…

After dozing off, I woke to the relief of a 5:30pm sun, just ripening into orange in the west. I propped myself up for the show. The sun pitched a few last rays skyward behind a passing cumulus before dropping behind the dark horizon. The scattered clouds now bathed in reds and pinks, growing brighter still, then fading slowing back to grays. I watched until the day was only a burnt golden two fingers above the horizon, and a strip of neon blue fending off the imminent darkness. Now there was purple and scattered planets appeared. And then, like galactic candles being lit, the stars appeared. Their twinkling strengthened, and our own was now well at work across the world, starting a new day for millions of beings… The moon grew prouder now, seemingly unabashed by despite its top-heavy ¾ bulge.

I couldn’t remember the last time I had watched a day’s full transition to night…it seems we’re usually too busy to pay respect to the simple miracles of living on this big round Earth as it twirls through space…

A sharp gust sent Swell healing, shaking me from deep thought. A moment later I was at the mast, hauling down the mainsail and tying in a second reef…