David's Diary: Wednesday, May 7, 2003

On Passage on the Ionian Sea

Yesterday we did a final check of the weather, did a little more shopping, waited a half-hour to fill up with diesel fuel, and then after lunch we headed out into the Ionian Sea. The Ionian Sea separates Sicily from Greece. We expect our passage to take about two days and we will be more than two hundred kilometres from any land at some point in our passage.

Allen Peers Over the Wheel

The passage went smoothly yesterday and today with a mixture of sailing and motoring. We settle back into our watch routine. Allen sleeps out in the cockpit under the dodger. Kevin does watches with me and Karalee and Jocelyn share the other watch. We do four hours on and four hours off during the day and three hours on and three hours off during the night. Allen spends some time at the wheel, even though he can barely see over the top of it. When off watch we catch up on our sleep, read, and help with the cooking and cleaning up of meals.

Swinging Over the Sea

Jocelyn works hard on improving her swing on the halyard, while Kevin keeps a lookout for Dolphins. It can be boring at times, but with ships to watch out for, wildlife to see, and sleep to catch up on, the time slides past just as the water slips by the hull.

A Winged Visitor

Just before sunset a tiny bird lands on Dragonsinger. He doesn't seem afraid of us we take turns trying to feed it. The bird drinks some water then suddenly he flies down into the main cabin. I go down below and try and chase the bird back outside. I imagine bird droppings sprinkled over our cushions before I eventually trap the bird in our aft head. I open the hatch from the head to outside and eventually the bird flies back out. The bird doesn't leave Dragonsinger. He obviously wants to hitch a ride, so he flies up to the foredeck and crawls under our dinghy where he spends the night.

Ionian Sunset

As the sun sets we rig up for night travel. In addition to our personal flotation devices, we all wear a harness that tethers us to the boat and a strobe light that can be seen for miles should we end up in the water. It is much harder being on watch at night as freighters are hard to spot, even with the help of radar. There are compensations -- the settled weather means there are no clouds at night and as Kevin and I do our watch we look up to see the entire Milky Way spread out across the night sky. I hope this is one of those special moments that we will each remember for the rest of our lives.