One Water Story Blog
June 27, 2013
Crew: Asta Mail, Eric Loss, Shanley McEntee, Marget Pietrak, Kate Gardella, Richard Rienert
Blog written by: Richard Reinert
Observations 15:30
I am sitting topside aboard Sea Dragon, thinking about why I am here, and musing a lot about my shipmates. I am quite thrilled to be here with them, each having their
individual personalities- quite different and yet they show a mutual concern. Not just about the sea, and the Great Lakes they are about to sail into, but also how they hope to communicate with people who don’t share their passion for the most abundant resource on Earth, still yet the most threatened-water.
Water-it’s the most important resource for life, and also the most neglected, perhaps because of its abundance.
I think we feel that there’s so much water that we-mankind-will never be able to contaminate it so much that it will not be useful, worse drinkable.
And yet, that’s where we are headed. A world where water is so badly spoiled that we can drink only the portion that comes from the heavens.
So that’s why I exist, why I’m here. That is why my shipmates are here-to find a way to spread a message among man kind that it is time to stop fouling the most precious resource we have.
As Margaret said, we need to find a positive manner to transmit the message.
Observations- 19:30.
I had my first chance at the wheel and I can’t say that it was a pleasant experience.
I had to brace myself against two sides of the cockpit and after a while my left leg started to hurt a lot.
It was the same side where I had the arthritis and that of the foot that I broke many years ago and never had reconstructed.
Fortunately, Eric was there to relieve me and I took the wheel again for about half and hour and then turned it over to Asta, who finished the watch.
During most of the time, we were motor sailing, which increased our speed.
After my watch at 16:00, I ate a huge peanut butter and jelly sandwich and crashed when Eric told me they were waiting to dinner with me.
Observations 22:00- Written by Asta and Rich
We had been sailing through dense fog since 20:00, and the rain which our shipmates had had to endure earlier had stopped. The heavens were smiling on us, as usual. Asta and I dubbed our watch team- “The Old Man and the Sea”.
As we watched sky open up, the stars appeared, and Rich could see the Big Dipper, Ursa Major and Polaris, and possibly even some planets. The fog densened shortly after, becoming so thick that it felt like a warm blanket around us, and drops of dew settled along our eyelashes.
Shanley was frantically running back and forth checking the radar to make sure we wouldn’t hit anything as we sailed 8 or 9 knots, with no idea what was in front of us.
Rich was at the helm, managing wonderfully as he kept us on course. Suddenly, he screamed from the helm “THERES A LIGHT UP THERE! DEAD AHEAD!”
Shanley came barreling up the gangway, her eyes big and terrified.
She popped her head on on to the deck, like a gopher perceiving danger, and screamed, “what is it??!”
“It’s the Moon!!” Asta laughed as she watched it rise ahead.
This information put Rich into a state of pure joy, since he is a passionate moon lover. It also made Shanley relax quite a bit, since we weren’t headed for imminent doom. Everyone on watch was quite pleased.
The moon we viewed that night was a waning half moon, following the super moon that had happened on June 23rd. It was absolutely breathtaking.
Rich relayed a story about seeing a full moon on the shores of Lake Huron with his children about thirty years ago. The moonlight was so bright then, he said, that you could navigate just by its beams all around you.
Rich stayed on course, watching the moon rise through the clouds and fog. Just as it disappeared, we ended our watch, just in time for the rains to appear for poor Kate and Margaret to take over the helm.
