The Crossing--January 27th 2014

Quick note....we obviously made it--since you didn't hear from the authorities. Below, you will find some random thoughts that crossed Linda's mind during the sleep deprived early morning hours of the crossing.
FYI-- We are in the Berry Islands, specifically Great Harbor Cay. This is a return visit--and it does feel like going home.

A Word Problem For You
A 39' sailboat leaves West Palm Beach, FL at 1pm Monday,with an average speed of 5.3 knots with a cat aboard and a destination 134 miles across the Atlantic. She has to cross the Gulf Stream  which is flowing  north at 4 knots. At what time will sundowners be served?
Answer--At sundown, of course!! 26 hours later

Have you seen the movie All is Lost--starring a very handsome, 76 year old Robert Redford sailing alone (why??) in a small sailboat in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Let's just say anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. You know--like a huge box off of a cargo ship smashing his hull; like losing ALL of his electronics due to water cascading into the boat; like losing his mast in a fierce storm; you get the picture. Because of this movie, we made sure to have a ditch bag ready to throw into the dinghy in case of an emergency at sea. (This is in addition to the inflatable life raft that is always on the stern--for those worriers out there. I know who you are:)  We threw in flares, lighters, water, a bullhorn, clean underwear, the coffee maker, the cat, etc. all because I had visions of Robert Redford dancing in  my head--wait!! That's not so bad!

Have you ever tried to pill a cat? We have--unsuccessfully (meaning that the cat leaves scars and spits out the pill at the same time, all while making direct eye contact with you.) Now, we try to outsmart the cat by crushing the pill and putting it into yummy canned cat food. This is how Pearl gets her kitty tranquilizer so that she can float through the crossings. Unfortunately, when it wore off at midnight, she packed her kitty bag and was preparing to jump ship. Being a cat, her finicky gene had kicked in and she had decided she did NOT like tuna flavored cat food--especially with a crushed up pill, on a lurching sailboat, in the Atlantic. After a couple of hours of complaining, she got hungry enough to eat some chicken flavored food with her nighty-nite medicine hidden within. Sleep tight!

Tiny, Beautiful Things ( borrowed from the title of Cheryl Strayed's latest book)
An overnight crossing on the Atlantic holds many wonders. The twinkling, pale green phosphorescent creatures that dance in our wake; the planet Jupiter rising at twilight; the cruise ships that look like jeweled 3-tiered cakes on the horizon; our wonder about what might be swimming below us in the 2500 feet of water; and the stars--clustered layers of brilliance!