. . . on the LONG sail

So here we are on day 16 of our sail . . . the first 13 were quite gentle, nice little rock, virtually no interruption to daily routine .. . then along came day 14 (Friday)!!

The waves and swells both increased significantly, which is entirely normal for this area.  We went from rocking 3-4 degrees on a bad patch to having one wave sequence that took us over 21 degrees port and starboard!  All around the ship you could here the crash and bang of things that had broken loose of their moorings or had been thought to be safe from moving.  Many of us spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up things and re-securing areas that were supposed to have been fully secured before we sailed.

Since Friday we have had pretty constant 6-10 degree rolls.  If feels just like I've been on the kiddy roller coaster . . . for a constant 48 hours!  Neither Denise or I have felt particularly seasick, I am just ready to be done riding the roller coaster!  I have a much better understanding of why sailors have to adjust their balance between sea and land.

We arrive in Cape Town tomorrow where we will stay for about 2 1/2 weeks doing promotional/recruitment work in conjunction with the South African office.  Then it is off the Madagascar!

Here are a couple pictures we took this week, separated by just a few days:

In the last entry I forgot to mention the excitement in the harbor of Gran Canaria!  A ship docked about 1,000 meters away from us started on fire.  Thankfully there were no injuries; however, the fire got bad enough they towed the hulk out to sea and sunk it . . . here are a couple pictures . . .

Time Change:  For those of you in the Central Time Zone, we are now 7 hours ahead of you .. . . when we get to Madagascar near the end of October we will be 8 hours ahead, then after you change your clocks, we will be 9 hours different.  

And We're Off!!

As many of you know, Mercy Ships has FINALLY announced country next (version 3) . . . we are on the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Madagascar via South Africa.  We left the Canary Islands a week ago and have been chugging along ever since.  We will be stopping in Capetown South Africa for about 3 weeks to support our South Africa office and to allow a few more weeks for our advance team in Madagascar.  The advance team is working feverishly to complete pre-arrival work for the ship.  This team normally has at least 4 months to do this work, in Madagascar, they will have six weeks!  As a perspective of the length of this voyage (the longest ever for the Africa Mercy), we are travelling just over 4,400 nautical miles to Capetown . . . at 12-13 miles per hour!  When we arrive in Madagascar, we will be in the port of Toamasina on the east coast and will be serving a population that is mostly new to us.

Here is an Ebola update . . . as of August 26, there were 3,069 cases including 1,552 deaths . . . as of September 14 there were 5,335 cases including 2,622 deaths.  This impact of this disease is growing at a huge rate.  On top of that, people are getting desperate in the affected countries.  Just this week, there were 8 people including pastors and government officials killed by a mob in southeast Guinea.  These people were there simply to educate others as to how to avoid Ebola and died for their efforts.  We specifically ask for prayer for the family of Rev Moise Mamy.  Rev Mamy helped to run a hospital that had close affiliation with Mercy Ships during our time in Guinea.  There are many people hurting over this loss tonight.

Last update for this entry, Denise and I have made the decision to end our time with Mercy Ships just a little early.  We will be flying back to the US somewhere between Dec 20 and Christmas.  Last year we stayed in Africa for Christmas due to only having limited time off of work and high costs of travel.  This decision, while logical, wasn't right for our family.  We vowed that we would spend Christmas with our kids this year.  Accordingly we planned on them joining us in West Africa for a couple weeks during the holiday season.  However, with the change to Madagascar, travel has greatly increased in both time and cost and significantly decreased in reliability.  So, we have decided to end this period of service in December.  On a really good note, because we discussed our challenges with Mercy Ships senior staff, replacements have already been found for our positions.  They will both be filled without an interruption in service.  We are very thankful for that!!

Here are a couple pictures from our sail today. . . it has been mostly overcast this week but after we crossed the equator in the middle of the night, the skies have cleared . . . but the ocean swells have increased!