En Route to Carriacou

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May 4, 2011 en route to Cariacou
Now we are at sea again, this time for 3 days, for 300 miles down to Cariacou. We are back at full crew again plus Ollie and Julie, old returning ship mates. The at-sea ship routine has resumed, except this time my afternoon off watch hours are spent watching The Killing – a new show our Ollie is in that is apparently doing well in the states. We are all hooked. We are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I have resumed to leading my night time yoga/abs/stretch/workout sessions which is now being held on the hatch with a view of the darkened square sails set against the starry skies. The sailing started out great, holding 4-6 knots. But we lost our wind this morning slowing us down to 1-2 knots causing us to fire up – yuck. But, this also means I get to see Frank this weekend too, which gives another something to look forward to.
Hours spent on look-out are spent more intently looking for traffic, the passing islands, the Technicolor sunrise and sunset skies and with thoughts of what life is going to be like when I return home. I’ve been at this crazy adventure for over 4 months now with less than 2 months to go. It’s been awesome and great, but I will also be looking forward to going home to resume a “normal” life if that’s even possible after an experience like this. As much as I look forward to seeing friends and family again upon my return, I hope to continue to fully experience and appreciate this grand adventure and not get too preoccupied with thoughts of my return. Thoughts of “what next” is on most of the ship’s minds, especially for those who have been at this voyage for over a year, so it’s hard to avoid. But, we still have some islands to see and plenty of sailing left to do and all the learning that goes along with it.
Yesterday during watch, there was a 16:30 power shower and a 17:00 Captain’s talk on the quarter deck about the history of the Caribbean and Cariacou. The history he explained in detail in regards to the sugar plantations, colonization and slave trade mirrors much of what I’m reading in the book, Sugar and Slaves, lent to me by the captain. It is more interesting to read naturally, directly sailing by and through the islands the first settlers did in the 1700’s. Too bad all of history lessons can’t be taught that way in the schools (actually taking trips to visit these places). Perhaps I would have been more interested in learning and actually retain the information that was taught to me.

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