Storms and Dogs

Sorry for the delay in this update, but I have wanted to include a lot of thoughts and updates so that a complete event is described and no one is left in the dark as to what is happening or what progress is being made.

What a day (yesterday)!!! Third day into the new year and already things are hectic. For the first time since Lee’s been gone, I can look back on the day before, admit that it was a struggle and be thankful that it has passed. Thank goodness the weekend is around the corner and I can regroup and restructure. I have been worried about Lee, Sasha and Kwela and how things are going out there on the big blue ocean. My hopes and prayers is that journey continues to be an adventure for them until they reach their destination - Adelaide, Australia. It would be soul destroying for it to turn into a journey where all they will remember is the struggle they constantly endured to finally sail into a second or third choice destination.

My second to last conversation with Lee was on Monday evening. I have to confess to omitting news from that conversation. When sharing news on an open platform like a general email or the blog (which this email will appear on as well – http://leesodyssey.blogspot.com ), I tend to consider the repercussion and fallout of what I am saying and how it is going to interpreted and felt by all the people reading it. Now I know that there are people reading this blog that only want to know that Lee is ok and are not really interested in what is happening out in the ocean as it will cause them to worry and lose focus on the fact that Lee is all right. I am unable to continue protecting the “few” by keeping the news from the “masses”.

On Sunday night, Kwela sailed through an incredibly huge and violent storm, and Lee had to confront one of her fears head on. Lee was on watch when the storm struck and was responsible for steering the yacht while the storm raged around them. I am proud to say that while Lee was swept off course for a while, she was able to stay focused, face her fear and get Kwela going back in the right direction. Lee said that she had never been so scared and I am hoping that it did not take too big of an emotional toll on her. Thankfully, Kwela sailed out of the storm undamaged.

My last conversation with Lee was on Wednesday evening. I had been given instructions on who to phone for their birthdays that day, so I thought it would be a nice surprise if the person who answered the phone also happened to be one of her good friends (also a birthday girl on the day). When I was finally able to wrestle the phone away from Lynnie, it was to bombarded with questions about Samurai’s incident on the beach. On our normal evening jaunt (Tuesday), we arrived at the beach just as the nippers were finishing their training. The coach told them to put their boogie boards down and being little boys, they all tried to outdo each other with the noise they could generate in this simple action. Samurai thought this was a great game to get involved in and before I could say anything, he ran into the mob, looked around for someone who looked like fun, and nudged him in the back of the leg. Obviously all the parents standing nearby had a heart attack and I am the irresponsible owner of a vicious dog. The boy in question did not even know what had happened – one of his friends had to tell him. Anyway, everything’s back to normal - Samurai still goes to the beach every evening, the nippers throw their boards on the beach and the parents are ever so vigilant for vicious dogs.

Due to this I was not able to get much news from Lee, except that the wind had once again been very quite over the last two days and they had travelled less than a 100 miles in that period. There is obviously a lot of time which they have free, as Lee had just finished her 5th book in 18 days. Not bad for someone who seems to be either bobbing around on the ocean or being thrown around the cabin by the sea. I was told that the wind had started to pick up late in the evening but that it appeared it was bringing another storm.
Lee sent love and greetings to everyone and wanted me to tell you that she is still happy and enjoying herself, though they would really like a bit of wind.

Obviously I spent the evening wondering about what was going on out there in the middle of the ocean and if the storm prediction was actually going to be correct. I received a welcomed sms yesterday morning to say that they had spent most of the night in an electrical storm, that it had been extremely frightful, they were both exhausted, but safe. Very few of us have ever had the privilege of experiencing an electrical storm like that. Some of us might know what a good old Highveld thunderstorm is like, and we all have our stories to tell of lightning striking rather close to us. Bully for us. A Highveld storm is the matchstick, the south Indian ocean storm is the whole freaking tree. Lightning streaks across the sky (most electrical storms at sea are from cloud to cloud) for kilometers. The bolts are so big that it appears as if you could reach out, get on one and actually ride it. The sky turns an electric blue and you can see as far as the horizon as if it was broad daylight. It lasts for so long that you actually start to think that the sun is out. Suddenly it switches off and plunges you back into the black pit of night, no stars, no moon, just the expectation of another lightning bolt streaking across the sky. The noise is deafening, imagine standing in front of the noon day gun when it salutes midday and then that just goes on and on.
I stood there and as frightened as I was, I was inspired and filled with awe.

My next conversation with Lee will be tonight. I will endeavour to send out the update timeously tomorrow morning. Until then, stay well.

As always, I will let Lee know that your wishes and thoughts are with her as she sails across the ocean, carrying a bit of all our personal desires and dreams with her as well as a tinge of envy.