It is interesting how my mind adapts to the length of a passage. I only get “are we there yet” thoughts when I am close to the end. I am ten days into a fifty-some day passage, and it does not feel like I have been sailing very long. It seems like just yesterday that I left Saldanha. In contrast, on a 2000 nm passage, by day ten of fifteen I am ready for the passage to be over. Sure, I have milestones in this passage – reaching or passing the mid-sea islands of St. Helena and Ascension, reaching the Brazilian coast, and of course the final destination of Barbados. There is also passing to the Western Hemisphere, which I will do in a couple of days, and passing into the Northern Hemisphere, which I will do in a month. I suppose these could be viewed as destinations, but the difference between these milestones and the final one is the boat does not stop. So, I’m in a grove and I am not likely to get “are we there yet” thoughts until I am beating my way up the South American coast, perhaps passing French Guyana. Why? Well I suppose one reason I begin thinking about the end of a passage at the end of a passage is because I have to end up at a single point, preferably at dawn when the winds are lighter, or at least during daylight hours so I can navigate the coast to my anchorage, or sometimes I need to arrive during slack tide if I need to cross a shallow reef. When you are ten days into a passage and still have five thousand miles to go, it does not really matter if you sail north or west … you “go with the flow” while taking whatever Nature offers you. I suppose in my mind, I am “going with the flow” too. There is no use dwelling on the end of my voyage at this point where it does not matter whether I sail north or west.
Alajuela 38