We’re in position to leave tomorrow. The weather is looking good for the first few days of the trip and we’re mentally prepared for the onslaught.
I’ll be putting on a scopolamine patch … a medication that has various unfortunate side effects (like a dry mouth and extreme tiredness) but keeps actual sea-sickness at bay. We are fully provisioned for the trip. The cranky autopilot seems to have been cajoled into working again.
Even with our finances, our wills and our meds in order, I always have the same Leave-taking emotions and those are harder to quell than mere sea-sickness. I miss my daughters … they both loved sailing as kids. Of course, Alice has been gone (dead at 25 of a brain tumor) for over 18 years now, and Hope is ‘locked in’ at her home in rural Ontario. She and her husband Darin are caring for 4 children, 3 cats, 2 aged female horses, 4 ageing chickens and a psychologically-challenged Doberman. Hope’s oldest daughter (age 18) is working and living away from home, but the youngest child is only 6.
I still ardently wish Hope could come on this trip as it’s likely to be our very last offshore trip. I can envision how much she would love looking at the birds, looking at the sunrises or sunsets, seeing the differences in the wave patterns, and doing the actual sail-changes and physical work of sailing during her watches.
This photo of Darin and Hope on a calm day at sea says it all.
