Africa on the right, and straight on 'till morning

It’s a magic moment, hovering between light and darkness, as the sun sinks behind thick clouds, and the sea slowly fades into progressively subtle shades of grey and deep blue.  I can watch from my window, looking out on the hard white caps and the shallow swells on the haze through the glass.  It’s endless, the blue and the grey, stretching out for miles and miles to Africa somewhere to starboard.  In the morning I wake to sunlight reflected off the sea and shining in the window across my quilt.  The welcoming sun belies the cold air conditioning, and I'm looking forward to some time in the warmth out on deck.

By last night we’d been sailing for over 60 hours, with the hospital and all our cabins tied down tight.  Large piles of bedframes and chairs and trashcans in each ward saran-wrapped together and racheted to bolts in the floor.  My first few hospitals would never have dismantled so neatly.  

The staff is scattered through other departments, with just a few left in the hospital.  My first few sails I also had been loaned out - to housekeeping and hospitality, with a few-week stint as the ship seamstress and a sewing machine tied down to the table.  This time I've stayed in the hospital department, and in between writing final reports and preparing for Guinea my main job is compiling an appropriate sailing playlist of songs such as "For the moments i feel faint," "Stranded," "Rescue Me,"and "Let the waters rise."  My initial assignment was unstrapping the land rovers on deck and seeing how long they take to go overboard, but in the interest of not being thrown overboard myself I've decided to postpone that for after we dock.  Others of my co-workers have decided to try a wide variety of balancing skills such as yoga and juggling,  some are on flying fish and dolphin watch, and windsurfing along the deck with hammocks also looks quite fun. :-D Just kidding, Mom, of COURSE I would never try something like that.

I took the first afternoon to get used to the rocking, my head attached on a string and bouncing around in a fog somewhere above me.  Guardrails on my bed let me sleep soundly without fear of falling out, and after a few hours I could walk without looking completely drunk.  It's sunny now, out on the bow, and I'm looking forward to a good week of catching up with paperwork and reports, and taking time just to relax and enjoy spending time with God and enjoying the beauty of His creation and the vastness of His love.  I am blessed beyond anything I could ask or imagine!