« San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #27 | Main | San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #29 »
October 19, 1998
San Francisco to Hawaii, Second Attempt. Update #28
28. Date: Mon, 19 Oct 98 03:04 GMT
Latitude: 29 degrees 12 minutes North
Longitude: 132 degrees 33 minutes West
My Perfect Sunday: Wake at sunrise on my 50 foot Portuguese trireme, Salcombe Harbor SW England. One hour of yoga and meditation on deck, then row dingy to East shore to exercise friend's horse. We cross damp, steaming fields and through fragrant woods to the beach, where we race along the surf line. Row across estuary to town around 10am, for Captain Morgan's oozing bacon and egg sandwich, pot of hot, sweet tea and Sunday papers. Go to the beach with big group, lots of kids, play games and bring sushi and champagne picnic. Fall asleep among dunes in the sun. Big family evening meal, roast duck with roast taters and vegetables, treacle tart and custard desert. Go to pub for few pints and bring home group friends for card games and storytelling til early hours with good coffee, brandy and cheeses.
Reality: 8.30am Jason's voice from sleeping compartment "Steve... You awake?". I'm not in Salcombe. I'm wearing salty, damp T-shirt, wet sleeping bag over that, and over that I seem to be wearing a small yellow boat, which is rolling violently on the Pacific Ocean 800 miles from land. I've had 2 hrs on the rolling torture machine that is our second bed, being tossed around like a rag doll between hard cabin walls. Have been almost continuously battered now for 3 weeks. Water sloshes back and forth on the floor, along with an empty packet of hot chocolate and a wool sock. Outside the wind howls across grey, 20 foot rolling swells, and it starts raining. To make enough water for a cup of tea requires pumping the little plastic machine for 20 minutes, but I don't want it that much. This is dreadful. Then a wave squeezes through the slightly open canopy, injecting half a gallon of cold water on my head, most of which trickles its way down my body inside the sleeping bag. One day I'll have my perfect Sunday, and when I do, I'll honor the memory of this one.
Happy Birthday Eilbhe!
Lewis & Smith,
The Moksha crew
Posted on October 19, 1998 6:00 PM