What does it feel like when you’re almost across the Atlantic ocean? When you have only one more day to sail. Is it exciting, depressing or bittersweet?
Atlantic crossing day 18 – We’re almost to St Lucia!
If the wind keeps steady or increases we’ll be in St Lucia tomorrow! Wow.
This morning I woke around 4 am and laid in bed thinking of writing this blog and making a video. I’m excited to capture the journey so that we all can share it with friends and family.
Around 5 am I joined Simon in the cockpit.
He was watching Bad Boys 2 so I made him a coffee and joined him to watch the sun come up. For some reason, I can’t drink coffee while sailing. I just don’t desire it. Nor do I desire wine or any alcohol. When I’m on land, however, consumption of both coffee and wine is a daily ritual. Interestingly, I can drink tea so I’ve enjoyed a couple of hot teas.
Sienna is up now too – the three of us are all in the cockpit playing on our individual devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook). Aside from Minecraft all of Sienna’s apps are educational. And even Minecraft is a great learning platform – social too! At Las Palmas, all the kids got together and hooked up their devices so to play Minecraft together. Some parents limit the time children use the iPad. I’m very fortunate with Sienna as she’ll play with it usually as a last resort.
Her first option is to play with others.
As I sit here on what might be my last full day, as we’re almost across the Atlantic, I feel relaxed, grateful and full of peace. The sense of nothingness that has been pervading my spirits most of this trip is _______. I cannot find a word for it. It’s not a ‘bad’ or ‘good’ feeling. It’s beyond bad and good. Perhaps peacefulness gets close to how I feel. I feel nothing yet at the same time I feel everything.
Maybe it comes down to the lack of thoughts I’m entertaining?
Never in my life have I been able to simply be rather than do. Never have I felt what it’s like to be devoid of past and future thoughts. I read ‘the Power of Now,’ by Eckhart Tolle several years ago and was inspired by the concept of living in the present more often than not. But until I started sailing I just didn’t get it. Now I do.
The way I feel is fleeting moments of bliss that come over me again and again. I think that what happens is I have a thought, momentarily get caught up in it and then I am able to drop the thought and just be for a few seconds – that’s when the blissful nothingness comes in. I stare at the waves, move my body to the undulation of the ocean, listen to the water hit the hull and feel a tingling bliss.
Even when I’m seasick I can still find peace at sea. Amazing, isn’t it?
Onto other things… For lunch, we had my butternut squash coconut soup (made and froze before we left) and Murray made some lovely focaccia bread. We’re all obsessing about when we’ll arrive, what we’ll do and the food we want to get.
There’s a bet on regarding the time we’ll arrive – I guessed 5 pm local time but now think it will be earlier. I’m definitely getting more and more excited about walking on land. The past few days I didn’t let my mind wander as far as the arrival. I didn’t want to get excited and then have to wait. When I consider that I’ll be able to get off the boat, walk, have a coffee/wine, and move without caution or trouble I get butterflies.
Many people think sailing is about freedom and in many respects they’re right.
After a long voyage, however, freedom can often be the act of getting off the boat! We are almost across the Atlantic but we’re not quite there just yet!
After lunch, everyone dispersed. Simon is on the cockpit seat across from me sleeping. Andrew went for a shower. Eve and Sienna are watching ‘Into the Woods.’ Kenny is watching a movie about a submarine. And Murray is cleaning up. The sun is hot. The sea is calm with big swells hitting us once in a while.
How about saving this last part for when you get my paperback or download my digital book? Proceeds from the book enable me to keep writing and reporting about our experiences – good and bad. By purchasing ‘Changing Lifestyles – Trading in the Rat Race for a sail around the world‘ you’ll be helping us massively. The book is almost 400 pages long and details our life on land before we sold up and sailed away, our transition from living on land to living at sea, our voyage around the Mediterranean, Atlantic Crossing and our sail up the Caribbean. It’s a great book for anyone that has ever dreamed of sailing around the world. Get your copy today 🙂
What’s Next after our Almost Across The Atlantic post?
- In the next article, discover what it’s like to cross the finish line successfully crossing the Atlantic ocean.
- In the previous article, finally, on day 17 of our Atlantic crossing, we use our spinnaker. Doing an Atlantic crossing with spinnaker is a common choice but we struggled. Find out what happened with our Atlantic crossing with Spinnaker post.
- Click here for a general overview of our Atlantic Crossing