Hashtags and Swells.

I’m sitting out on Deck 7, glancing up every minute or two to focus on the horizon.  This helps keep the nausea at bay, thankfully.  I just downloaded an ipod app that measures the degrees to which we are rocking and rolling; in port, it’s around 2 degrees each way on a regular basis. Yesterday, when the water was a smooth, deep sapphire, it felt like we were in port. Today the water is a steely gray color with more whitecaps and a sway of 4-5 degrees, just enough to make me a bit queasy if I’m inside for too long or staring at a computer screen for any length of time.  Please pray the swells don’t increase any further.

The sapphire smooth waters yesterday

I read a quote one time that said something like, “Swells? Whoever decided to call them swells?  There’s nothing swell about them. They should be called Awfuls.”  To which I say… AMEN!

The steely gray water today.  These two pictures look like entirely different places - but the same ocean!

 I’m back on my ship home and will be honest and say the transition back wasn’t as happy-go-lucky as I had hoped.  The stress of catching up and passing on my old job, while preparing for sailing and dealing with jet lag was a bit excessive; I was not in a very good place last Friday.  However, things worked themselves out as they usually do, and under God’s grace I was able to completely release my former job to my highly capable replacement and her fantastic team; I started my new job today with joy and excitement instead of fear and anxiety.  That, my friends, is an answer to prayer in itself.

Fear and anxiety only have the place in your life that you allow them to have.  I may need some of you to remind me of that over this next year!!

The seas have been kind to us; we’ve seen whales, sea turtles, beautiful pinkish fish just below the surface, flying fish, and today the dolphins put on a show.  This sail is a long one, we’re due to arrive in Pointe Noire, Congo in about two weeks time.  The first two days of the sail were lovely, sweet, relaxing time with friends in the sun with the salty breezes kissing our cheeks.  This week is filled with hospital start-up meetings and me trying to get my brain around my new job while not getting too seasick.  There’s also fun activities almost every night for crew, as the ship sails on it seems to get smaller and smaller, and we need to be creative in how we entertain ourselves!

Our communications team this year is really fantastic; they’ve done an amazing job of putting together the #sailwithus campaign.  If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you can follow our progress this sail as well as see where we’ve come in the last 35 years of this organizations existence by checking out the #sailwithus feed on any of those platforms.  Very cool.

 

 

You might be saying “What on earth is she talking about?” If that’s you, I’m sorry.  Google it.  Smile.

Thanks for sticking with my blog through this last quiet season.  I’ve written posts here and there over the last quiet weeks, and will post those as I have the opportunity to edit them and get them up.  Much is happening, it’s an exciting new season for me and the Africa Mercy, thank you for joining me in this adventure!

Love to all - Krissy