Joys of a Passage

[carstenb]

I'm in the middle of translating our second book from Danish to English . I was checking some information and therefore I was rereading some of our blogs from our website and came across this: It is from our blog about the passage from Galapagos to Marquesas. I hope you can feel the anticipation and joy for starting a passage as this.

you can read the whole blog on our website: https://svcapri.com/2018/08/17/carst...nto-emptyness/


No alcohol when we sail and we both missed our evening glass of wine. But, we were happy to be at sea again – this time heading out for the great adventure – the South Sea Islands. Captains Cook and Bligh, the Bounty, Gaugin, bronzed girls in grass skirts and little else – all my boyhood dreams and fantasies are waiting just over the horizon. How many people get to have their boyhood fantasies come true?

I am reminded of the poem:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

I’m not a poet – but that one says just about everything Vinni and I feel about raising the anchor and setting our sails. There really isn’t anything quite like it when the anchor chain rumbles in – adventure waits, you don’t know what the passage will be like. Will we be beset by squalls? Will dolphins and whales glide by Capri? How starry will the sky be?

[JPA Cate]

Yes, I well remember my first sighting of the tropic birds and the little Tahiti Petrels, too. There's something just magic, to me, watching the world come alive again, as dawn approaches, and some of the softest air in the world....

Ann

[jackdale]

My best memory is the night after we left Cape Town to cross the South Atlantic. Looking behind me I saw the Southern Cross. Some song came to mind (Iknow that is about a different ocean).