Drifting Through Paradise

I woke Wednesday with the feeling of a being in a blender, getting tossed around and spun at the same time. My thought as I got up and went to the head was you have to be joking, one bottle of wine and I got drunk?, no way. It was impossible, honestly, had half of it with dinner, then the other half sitting in the cockpit looking at the stars. The bottle was empty by 10:00 last night, I talked on the phone after it was empty, then went for a swim afterward. I was buzzed when I was talking, but  not when I dove in the water. So why was I feeling like this?

I came out of the head and grabbed my smokes off the settee, turned around and went to the companionway and then I understood. Emmanuelle was being tossed about by the winds. Thank God, I thought, I mean, that was the first I drank since that night in Annapolis, and Mush and Miss Mean Ass can attest I was very drunk that night.  But not last night.

I stepped out and looked around, anchors holding fast, we would rotate forty five degrees to one side then back to the other as the waves bounced us up and down. The words of Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald came to mind as I looked at the stove, its too rough to make coffee, the percolator wouldn’t stay on the stove, so I got the second best morning beverage, a Diet Coke and had a seat. Storm clouds coming fro the north. After a second smoke I climbed on deck, moving my hand from the lifeline to the shroud to the mast as I worked my way to the forward deck and battened down the forward hatch. Worked my way to the stern just as careful as I did to the bow. Checked the fuel locker then went down below and pulled out my journal and wrote till around three and couldn’t take being tossed about anymore. I packed up the laptop and went to shore.

After a tiring paddle to shore, I was damned near exhausted. After a few hours drinking coffee and writing, I returned to Emmanuelle. The sea was calmer and the winds subsiding. I laid down early, still worn out from the ride to shore, its was an ugly dark day in paradise, but a friend called, and turned my dreary day bright with the sound of laughter and their tales of jellyfish and sharks.

I haven’t checked the weather so I don’t know what Thursday will bring yet, but rest assured whatever its brings I will enjoy it, because no matter what, its gotta be better than a jellyfish sting on…..

You fill in that blank friends, as for me, its late so I am going to sleep, and I hope to dream of faces in the moon, or  maybe a dream of toasting the sunset with a glass of wine an a friend on the phone……