We had rowed the dinghy to shore and walked to the strip of beach that is the very tip of Cape Cod. When we left to cross over to Maine at 6 am, that tip of beach was covered with seals who sang an energetic farewell as we departed Cape Cod.

The 30-hour crossing from Provincetown MA to the central outermost islands of Maine was marked by fair winds for sailing growing into large waves at night. I spelled Bryan for 2-hour shifts a couple of times. These were challenging for me as I was knocked over in the cockpit twice by wave action and the rest of the time I was holding on securely to the coaming, or side of the boat cockpit. I tried listening to my Learn Italian lessons on an iPod but found I was feeling queasy (too many sensory inputs I guess) and had trouble staying on course without complete attention to the stars in relation to the boat. There were three very bright falling stars and two shooting stars that spanned a fair distance of sky, in addition to tons of satellites, aircraft, and two military aircraft flying in impressively close formation. Bryan was very kind to let me rest as he did much longer shifts. I don’t know how he was able to do 4 hours at a time. The waves eventually lightened up a bit, and I was able to slip into dreaming for a couple hours down below after my midnight to 2am shift, with the boat rocking to and fro.