Another reason I’m quite glad we really didn’t have any days really going way out into the ocean was because of the storms… aside from the night that we left Portobello, we pretty much had a storm every night thereafter. Now personally, I absolutely LOVE thunder and lightning storms!! It’s actually a criteria of where I live! If the place doesn’t have sufficient thunderstorms year round, I won’t survive there long. But I digress…
The first storm that we traveled through is where the sparrow comes in… The Captain of the sailboat (the American) absolutely cracked me up!! As the winds whistled violently through the air sloshing the boat one direction then the next he stood at the helm, legs wide so to have a solid stance. His bandana over his head flapping in the wind. As the rain came down on our heads he held a cigarette in one hand and a glass of rum in the other all while he held the wheel and jerked it this way and that against the force of the wind! Periodically he would release one hand from the wheel to take a drag or sip of his booze, then on again he went. He literally looked like a scene out of Pirates of the Caribbean with Captain Jack Sparrow at the helm through the storm! I couldn’t help but just watch him in awe and absolute humor! Seriously wish I had a video of that!!
So that was one of the storms… Other storms we had while simply trying to stay off shore of an island for a night. But with the currents and wind we had to keep moving around so we wouldn’t get pushed too close into the shore. The lightning and thunder was absolutely glorious and I never felt any fear whatsoever until one particular storm…
It was on the night before we were supposed to be in our docking area to get “smuggled” into Columbia. Because of this storm we had to pull in to another island area that was more protected from the ocean. It worked in our favor after all because we got to spend yet another day/night in the islands. Anyway, I had gone to bed before the storm struck but was woken at some point during the night by the sounds going on around me. As I opened my eyes, the first thing I really noticed and registered was the severe rocking of the sailboat. The German woman and I were given the room at the very front of the sailboat and in the room, aside from small windows along the side was a window on the roof that essentially went on the top deck. Essentially what I saw was nothing but rushing water through the side windows and at times the windows were completely submerged. The top window, as the nose of the boat dove deep into the water from the waves, had a steady stream of water rushing back and forth over top. The whooshing sound and the up and down rocking as the nose dove over and over again into the ocean was already quite a concerning feeling. Then the sounds from the living area started to register. I looked behind to the living area to see one of the crew members holding on to any surface he could to stay standing. Plates and pots and pans and food and literally all other contents of the cabinets in the living and kitchen area started clashing and clattering to the ground as the violence of the boat movement was simply too much for the cabinet latches to keep everything shut. The crew member tried over and over in vain to rig the cabinets to latch closed…
At this point, a very real realization came to mind. I thought honestly, that this was it. We weren’t going to make it. There was no way this little sailboat could make it through what sounded such a violent lashing from the ocean. As I thought about how this could literally be the end, a thought occurred to me. I had no control over the situation. There was absolutely nothing I could do. So if in fact it was to be the end, I wouldn’t be afraid but simply would think about those I loved. The fear of the situation then subsided and I fell back into a deep sleep.
The next morning I woke to another day. We docked near another island not too far from the Columbian border and spent the day visiting the Kuna indigenous people of that island. I will certainly never forget that particular storm…
Ramblintraveler 