Vamp 'till ready

You're on stage with a pop band. Everyone else seems super cool … You look over at the singer who's giving a short autobiography of their life as related to the next song … on your chart you're following the directions 'Vamp 'till ready'. All of you are playing the same two bar phrase as the monologue continues until finally the leader says "… ANDA One, TWO … one ..two..three..four" and you're ON. .
The 'performance anxiety' described above is similar to what I now feel waiting for Larry to decide how to deal with our little part of the North Atlantic over the next week. Unlike the tropics where winds are mostly predictable, winds here seem to take bi-polar extremes. For over a day now we've been motoring through a calm. But a change is coming.

We have an axe hanging over us … we're trying to at least avoid the full force of that axe which will fall in 5-6 days. We're trying to get to a point (a largely mythical place) where the blow will be somewhat ameliorated … with winds not AS strong, the waves not AS high. PLEASE … just let us sneak past to the far side of the storm before the cruel downbeat can hammer us. We're prepared for a glancing blow but not for a direct 'hit'.

That Certificate of Advanced Performance hanging beside your piano and knowing that every single patron of the bar and your fellow musicians are falling-over-drunk will not necessarily keep you from absolute terror while 'vamping 'till ready' and waiting for the real gig to start. I apologize for earlier blogs that suggest this life is possible for all women. Right now I'm certainly not an expert and I'm wondering if I have "what it takes" for the upcoming storm …

But if you like watching a few dozen Arctic Terns swooping and wheeling over one particular patch of ocean, and if you want to experience the sun hovering over the sea to the West and never touching down, this is the place to be.

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At 22/06/2013 22:25 (utc) our position was 60°33.45'N 031°44.65'W