owed to the night watch

Here we sit, 2010 has come into our lives in flying colors: the deep blues of the Pacific, the oranges of the setting sun and the reds of 3 matching sets of West Marine Foulies. This New Years was rung in complete with home made paper hats, booty shakin' dance parties, fake eyelashes paired with rubber boots (sexy) and a midnight balloon drop at the only bar in Two Harbors. What a night!! Lucky for the Captain, the New Years Eve eve proved much better than our New Years Eve day. The first tragedy of the trip came early the am of Dec 31st and so we have begun a rule list for the crew of the Misty Moonlight to follow: Rule #1) always close the lid of the charmin while flushing (the head on our boat is lovingly referred to as the charmin). Unfortunately the good Captain found out the hard way...but those foul weather bibs will bead up just about anything that comes in contact with them. But enough about that @#$%. 2009 seems like only days ago (wait a minute!) We left the comforts of the Channel Islands Harbor, and our home for the past month-ish, to the warm rolling embraces of the Pacific Ocean under the oh so appropriate light of a very misty moon. Sails up and we were on our way!! Well the wind was a little short lived and after about an hour the wind had died a quick, and very painful death and we found ourselves in the doldrums. So, sails down...and we fired up that Volvo Penta MD6A. I will be the first to admit it is not quite as peaceful as sailing ol’ misty, but those dolphins sure love the purr of that Volvo Penta MD6A (we really like saying Volvo Penta MD6A …you can try too…5 times really fast) and they quickly found us and rode the bow through the evening. So the night watch rotation had begun...we brought out the cushions and 2 sleeping bags and they were set up on the benches on the sides of the cockpit. Captain Luigi started the evening’s watch and Lady Hornsby and I let the hum of that Diesel engine lull us to sleep. About 4 and 1/2 hours later I felt that familiar squeeze of the ankle that says..."rise and shine baby, your turn to watch." By that time the Blue moon was overhead and lighting the way. Lady Hornsby gave me the update, we were crossing the shipping lanes, no tankers sighted but keep a good eye out and we would be across in an hour or so and would change course about 30 degrees to the south. She crawled into the still warm bag I had just vacated and handed me a banana for a snack and was off to dream land. So it was Misty, myself and the big blue ocean alone for the next few hours. This is about the time that your mind starts that choo-choo train of thought that when you get a ways down the tracks you stop and go…wait how did I get here?? I think I started somewhere thinking of the moonlight beams on the water, like lovers dancing on the waves, then all of a sudden… BOOM… I was at that scene in the beginning of Cliffhanger… you know the one where Sylvester lets her slip from his hand and she fall thousands of feet to her death. WOAH! How did I get here? I had to change course so I went back in time to that one day Luigi and I were on the floor of Ace Hardware doing the Pythagorean theorem trying to figure out how much aircraft cable we needed just in case, then I was imagining Lady Hornsby, the day before our departure, running around Ventura in search of used carpet. And then when she found the dream piece, 12x7 nautical blue, and learned it was 27$ she told the man it was out of our price range, offered him 15$ and left empty handed. This is America, can’t barter here. Mexico here we come! Tonight we stay the night at a familiar beach, Whites Landing on Catalina Isle, and plan to head south towards San Diego in the ‘morrow. The adventures continue...until next time friends...
All the best, Sharkfoot