............................Somebody once told me, "Sailing a boat is 95% boredom and 5% sheer teeror." Although sailing a boat is far from boring, there are moments of something close to terror.
Gazela left Alexandria at 4:00 am. We cleared the bridge at 4:30 am. The bridge won't open after 5:00 am because of rushhour traffic.
We had a great day sailing down the Potomac River. We were climbing the rig and hanging on more sails. I even went out in the rescue boat to get a picture of Gazela at her best.
As usual, we had a great dinner by Paul, our cook. He made his own style of sheperds pie, which was great. We topped off the meal with icecream.
We were expecting an afternoon rainstorm,and by the time we were finished eating, it began to drizzle.
By 7:30 pm, I went below to write a new entry of my blog.
All of the sudden, I heard the rain pounding and orders being yelled. I closed my laptop and ran up on deck.
The rain was coming down so hard that you could barely keep your eyes open. We had zero visibility for 30 minutes.The crew quickly went from line to line pulling the sails down. There was thunder and lightning, and you could barely hear orders from the captain over the rain and the 45 miles per hour wind.
After the 30 minutes of organized chaos, the sun came out and we had a beautiful sunset. I heard the crew saying that the storm was their favorite part of the trip.
.....................It is amazing that after just 6 days of being together, the old and new crew worked so well together, in such severe conditions.
It's midnight now and we are just exiting the Potomac River and heading north to the Chesapeake Bay.
I will have to send this blog Tuesday morning due to laptop complications. My hurry to close my laptop during the storm could be the reason.
You never know what a day on a ship will bring you,
-Abby Fazio
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