Bartending and being non committal make doors of opportunities open that might not be there for the 9 to 5 Monday through Friday, married average Joe. Parties and sex are the first two, that's understood. But how about an awesome adventure vacation.
Working in a marina, you meet all sorts of transient characters. One night one of our part time cook and one of the dock hands were drinking at my bar. As the night went on, at some point I actually started paying attention to what they were talking about. They were preparing for an awesome trip on a fifty eight foot sail boat, I think they said and leaving from a dock in Norfolk in a week or so. "Where you going?" I asked being way to intrigued. "we're sailing to Bermuda with a guy that owns a vineyard here in Virginia. That's all I needed to hear and that's when I said what any of you would have said "I'll go". Go figure, they said that they needed a fourth crew. Now whats important to this story is that I had no sailing experience at all. Two thing in my head qualified me. First is that I was in the Navy fifteen years earlier, thought I might still have some navigational skills. Second I was on the swim team in high school. Regardless of experience I decided that this would be a great trip. Quickly got all my documentation together, got my vaccinations squared away, got packed and off we went.
We left early morning, hours before sunrise and worked our way through the Chesapeake Bay. Out into the Atlantic we headed south towards the outer banks of North Carolina. Now from what I was gathering, the Gulf Stream has its shortest crossing east of Nags Head N.C.. The Gulf Stream is described as bumpy at best. We all worked to secure every thing on the boat, preparing for the intense crossing. We turned our heading east, away from land. Once we put land out of sight the sun peaked out over the horizon. There it was off in the distance, The Gulf Stream. It was crazy that you can see it. Looks like a big, choppy, wavy water step with dark clouds above it. The sight made me queasy, the bumpier it got the more nauseous I got. I was a sick puppy. Since I couldn't stop puking, it only made sense that I should be the one tethered in the cock pit. As night fell the weather intensified, at one point I looked up the mast to the first set of spreaders, that had lights on them, twenty feet up from the deck and saw a white cap of a wave hit it, just before it struck me. It tossed me about in the cockpit like a rag doll toy for a pit bull. This beating went on for hours. The good thing about it was I could throw up in my lap and a wave would come and wash it away. I was to sick to be scared but I knew one thing for sure, my being on the swim team in high school would do me no good out here. Every once in a while one of the crew would come see how I was doing and ask me if I wanted ginger ale or some ginger snaps. It felt like I was a pined up dog that would get tossed a bone now and then. As fast as the sea sickness hit me, it went away. Now I felt to good to be scared. Finally we came out of the storm, the sky cleared and the sun began to rise, I was able to see how beautiful a part of mother Earth was, with her cobalt blue seas and a back drop of the sun rising. It was smooth sailing at that point. Going into our fourth day at sea, we were beginning to question the abilities of our captain. One thing I knew for sure was that navy back ground, which I remembered nothing, was worthless out here. Me and one of the crew had a midnight to six am watch. It was a beautiful night to be sailing. We saw a jet in the sky that seamed to be dropping altitude as though it was landing, which could only mean Bermuda. Still dark out, phosphorous glowed neon green as the bow stirred the water. The sky began to lighten as the sun was preparing to rise. A pod of brown and white dolphins were frolicking in the wake of the boat helping to navigate us to our destination. As though this wasn't biblical enough, the morning rain cloud that covers Bermuda began to leave the island. An arch of a rainbow pointed directly to the island as though God him self was guiding us in. We had made it, I couldn't fight the urge to yell "land ho" to wake the rest of the crew.
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