The calm before the storm

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This is my first impromptu blog.

At this very second I am underway, cruising from our home base in Tahiti to Fakarava in the Society Islands. It’s a 24-hour trip - most of which I will spend Whale watching. I hear the humpbacks are on their annual mating migration and word on the water is that they have been spotted.

A 16-day boss trip is approaching. It sits on your shoulders like a 100-pound weight. The amount of work that is only a few days away burdens our every move. So these 24 hours is our calm before the storm. Hours that I hope tick by slowly so I can enjoy my very last moments of being me. Once the boss arrives me becomes robotic.

We will cruise through 12 islands in 16 days. The agenda calls for 2 dives a day in addition to all meals on board, 9 guests, 1 baby, a dive guide, fishing guide and wake-boarding instructor. We are a crewmember short so expected to pick up the slack where needed. The plan is to anchor in the lagoons each night which calls for night anchor watch - this really means less sleep per crewmember. The chef is new. The Captain is lazy. I won't touch land for another 3 weeks.

As I type the sun is setting on our stern. The ocean is more like a lake today and its mirrored surface reflects the sun so intensely it hurts your eyes. The air is salty but the cool breeze comforts. Our bosun is on watch, the chef is cooking dinner and the rest are sleeping. In this rare moment, I find myself alone on the aft deck and I tell myself to remember this. To remember the warmth of the sun, the serenity of the ocean and this feeling of calm that radiates through my body as I quietly watch the sun fade.

I want to recall the feelings and to reminisce about this minute of tranquility in hopes the memory can get me through the 16-day storm that awaits us just beyond the horizon.

To my thousands of avid readers, see you in September.

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Photos

Sunset from Aft-deck
Cruising from Papeete to Fakarava.