VIC MAUI RETURN 2018 - POST #4

Day 5     Mermaids & Sunsets
30 d 44.0 N 153 d 11.3 W

600 NM north of Maui in the middle of the Pacific there is this fantastic Italian Restaurant. It is by invitation only and serves the most fantastic pasta with Italian sausage. We listen to happy Latin tunes and enjoyed our dinner and suddenly heard a thumping against the hull.  We wanted to believe that it was a mermaid joining us for dinner. We stopped the boat, but nobody climbed aboard. We furled the foresail and back up a little under the mainsail in case we lost the mermaid. Still nobody. We put the GoPro camera on the boat hook and had a real good look under water.  You never know, our mermaid might be shy and sitting on the bulb of our keel. But it was nothing but blue water, a clean hull, a shiny prop and a rudder that looked ok (although it could use a bit of a scrub). We set sail again and the mermaid lived on in the dreams of eight salty sailors.

Dinner was resumed as the sun set and created a dramatic back drop of towering castles engulfed in orange and red flames. Captain’s hour was half an hour late due to the mermaid incident but well attended. We watched, mesmerized by the ever-changing spectacle on the horizon as the sun sank into the ocean creating colours from deep red in the west to pink with a slight purple in the east. As the sun vanished the moon made its entrance over the eastern sky together with his companion Mars. The moonlight cast a sliver blanket over our wake as Salient pushed north. 
Sitting on the transom listening to the gentle gurgling of the water coming of the stern and the light whisper of the wind in the rigging I can’t help to think about how lucky we are to be out here, alone, sailing in absolute peace. 

Mahalo,
CM.