Sailing!!!

October 12

A quick update on my whereabouts:  Currently we are anchored back on the island of Skopelos, which kinda feels like home now that I have explored all of the tavernas, found the best gyro shop and hiked all over.  Last Sunday we picked up our second speaker, a dutch man named Eisbert Van Dyke (Eis for short) who currently works as a ski instructor and speaker for the torchbearers school in Austria.  Eis has been teaching at just about every bible school aboard the Encounter since the start, so he was able to share some good sailing stories, along with offering some great insight on the book of Galatians.  Eis is also a fan of fishing, which means our skipper has allowed a trolling line off the stern.  Yesterday Theo caught a decent size tuna, and proceeded to cut off the head and gut the fish on the mid-deck.  I learned that cleaning up fish blood is part of the deckhand’s duty. 

            Monday the weather finally changed from the light winds that had plagued our sailing attempts since early September.  Instead of doldrums, we got a steady 12 knot breeze with some strong gusts (probably averaged about force five-six conditions) from the north east as we headed south from the peninsulas back down to the outer islands.  The wind also brought with it heavy seas, complete with 12-18 ft waves.  For the un-initiated: that type of sea with that type of breeze from that direction equals an incredibly rocky ride.  It probably was some of the worst seas I have experienced, but fortunately the weather was nice otherwise.  The first 4-5 hours felt great.  Then I had to go below deck to secure some loose items in the cabin and my stomach starting feeling a little funky.  For about an hour or two after I was rather happy to just lay down on deck and not think about the roller coaster ride I was on, but then I felt fine and had a blast trimming and dropping the sails in the heavier wind as we reached out destination.  All in all a great day of sailing, although I slept extra well that night as my body still felt the rocking. 

            Wednesday I had the opportunity to join the students in an exercise of solitude and fasting on a “solo” day.  Basically I got dropped off by myself along some rocks on an uninhabited island around 1pm on Wednesday, with some water, an old sleeping bag, and my Bible for 24 hours alone.  I spent the afternoon hiking around, reading, and trying to find a suitable bed on an island without any level surfaces.  I finally found a small patch of rocks a few feet from the sea that was kinda level and had a nice collection of goat poo and some old Styrofoam pieces that made a pretty good mattress. I was pretty happy with it and hunkered down for the night.  Then the rain started.  At first it was only a few light showers only lasting about 15 minutes.  I fashioned a lean two with some sticks and a trash bag to keep my head dry and hoped my sleeping bag could handle the drizzle.  Then the zipper broke on my sleeping bag and for some reason I made up my mind to fix it at 1 in the morning.  90 minutes later I finally had it working again despite my wet (and at this point freezing cold) fingers.  Later in the night there was a heavier rain storm that pretty much soaked through my bags and all my clothes, leaving me nice and cold.  I got up in the morning and went for a hike to warm up (of course leaving my rain jacket behind) and got caught in a monster down pour that soaked me even more.  When I got back to my camp, I pretty much gave up on trying to be dry, (at least I was a little warmer with the sun out) and tried to read my bible, but ever 20 minutes or so the rain would start again, so it was a pretty futile effort.  I was picked up around noon on Thursday, still wet and cold but overall pretty satisfied with my solo experienced.  I had planned on reading a lot during the time, but the good Lord obviously wanted me to spend my time in prayer and reflection, since the rain prevented any extended reading.  It still was a great experience.  I never once got bored, frustrated, lonely or hungry and almost all of the students had the same experience, despite the rain.

            Tomorrow Eis leaves in the morning and we sail all day to the south (probably to some town I can't pronounce) to pick up our next speaker on Sunday.  Then we will probably spend some time sailing and going on adventures and going to bible class and eating gyros until the end of October when the adventure ends.  I hope all is well back home in the states. Hopefully Nebraska football can rebound and beat Northwestern this weekend.

Peace and Respect

-BG

some students and me rocking the headbands