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Thin Line · 05-09-2014, 17:58

Ok so my wife doesn't contribute to our blog, as a matter of fact she doesn't do much writing at all. So you can imagine my surprise when after our first night crossing I found she posted the experience to Facebook, after I finished reading it my stomach hurt. (from laughing)

One women's perspective

Night Watch

So my dreams of "cruising" in my sailboat have finally come true. We (the Young family) have set up our lives to work little and travel a lot. The restaurant that I work at is closed for most of September so we decided to sail to the Bahamas The overnight sail included autopilot failure and a decent storm, but we survived I would like to share my experience of "night watch".

For those non-sailors, "night watch" is a night shift at "the steering wheel" (especially when auto-pilot fails) to make sure we are staying on course, look for traffic (i.e. cruise ships and cargo ships) and to make sure all systems are working. My very good friend Hilary Carney Badoian was kind enough to share her experience of night watch. Hers was very well written and almost poetic. I want to describe my thoughts and feelings that I had with myself while on night watch.

"This is amazing.....are we there yet?......I am going to die and I am taking my family with me....I am a horrible mother....I am giving my children the best experience ever....are we there yet?....where the hell is my flashlight?.....OMG, is that a 1000 ft cruise ship or bioluminescence?....This is living.....I hate all people that are sleeping right now....hey, that's my flashlight rolling around in the cockpit...I guess that was just bioluminescence....wow the stars are amazing....are we there yet?....the only star I care to see right now is the sun....thank you little boat, please stay strong (in my best Chris Farley voice for Kimberly Wylie)....LAND HO!