Position 32 50.713S, 036 13.911E. I sat up in the bow this morning, facing the stern with my back leaning up against the pulpit, letting wave after wave that had first been split by the bow pour and spray over me (dry and comfortable inside my oilies). Firing away with my camera, I marveled at the beauty and power of the sea. Even a picture won't describe how incredibly blue an offshore ocean truly is but when you see (and feel) the V of the bow beneath you slam down and slice a temporary view into it, it's breathtaking.
People who've ventured out here with us on this particular leg most likely share my unique appreciation of not only surviving but actually thriving in a potentially hostile environment. Some 200 of us have ventured beyond what is comfortable to get a rarely glimpsed view of one aspect of this amazing earth. Slamming through increasingly colder waves at a 30 degree heel for the next three weeks, we're on our way to the Southern Ocean, an ocean that doesn't actually exist in any reference other than the minds of ocean racing sailors.
Maybe it won't translate in the telling of the tales to our friends and family but in our minds, we know?and that is enough. We've seen that true color of ocean blue that most of you never will, and would never believe from merely our words. You had to have been there.
Happily, we were and still are.
