December 9, 2016 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Latitude 2
For two glorious days we sailed from Cartagena to Miami. There was, of course, that lingering sense of
sadness that the cruise was coming to end.
Like a bride who plans her wedding for months, the cruise, like the
wedding, was over too quickly.
We were sailing in rich, warm Caribbean waters. It certainly didn’t feel like December. After time at the gym, I spent the rest of
each day on the 12th floor’s highest sun deck. The days were spectacular and all day uncluttered
sky clouds crept over the horizon.
I think I could spend days at sea. There is no port to distract the
cruiser. It’s just life on the
boat—lectures, gym time, sun deck. New
people to meet. Long dinners. Shows.
Casino. No one wants a piece of
you and there’s something quite nice about that. I know that when I’m doing a trans-Atlantic
crossing, my favorite days are the ones when we leave the Azores and have five
days sailing east to North America.
There is nothing quite so special as that day when I can say I’m in the middle of the ocean.
As we got closer to Florida, as we traveled north, the days
got cooler and less humid. Perfect
weather. For me, life in the subtropics
is far too uncomfortable. We paralleled the east coast of Cuba all day. Fishing vessels and sea worth sailboats could
be seen. Another cruiser ship trailed
us. The moon, now half full, ascended in
the sky and was visible all day. As the
day grew short the sea traffic increased.
We’d enter Bahamian waters and small freighters were more numerous. I wondered…were they heading south to the Panama Canal?
Late afternoon on our last day I lingered on deck watching
the sun set. It spread over the
Caribbean like a mauve shadow. Forty-eight
hours later we’d be home, in the cold.
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