Circum-navigating…In my Minds Eye…Part IV

Enjoyed Seattle, did Rufuz and I,

He, the cooler climes,

And I the wet from the sky,

Giving me time to catch up on engine work,

Now after being all full of diesel slime,

We have refueled, refilled with water & provisions,

And are heading out of the sound,

North past Vancouver, towards the British Columbian grounds…

We passed by an island, called Orca,

Small, not heavily populated, so pretty, so remote,

The picture above is that of the island, so take note,

We cruise north, only two to three miles off the coast,

So we can still see the sheer cliffs so green with foliage,

The whales, dolphins, seals and orca do play,

Within sight of the boat, we call home, and we pray,

Please don’t surface for a spray of breath, under our keel,

Or Rufuz and I will be in the raft, praying as we kneel…

Traveling at 8 to 10 knots, we are in no rush,

As we parallel the coast, we pick up a companion,

A momma whale and her baby, racing us, or so it seems,

Rufuz and I will “anchor out” in a cove of our choosing this night,

Maybe not far from Juneau so we can admire the Northern lights…

Not sure if they can be seen in this far southern latitude,

But either way, we will see them all too soon and be hypnotized,

By their almost playful movement in the sky so dark,

With the stars so amazingly bright, never have we seen it so stark,

Rufuz and his friends the whales, dolphins and seals, all do bark,

At the lights in the sky, the lights of the northlands,

Our northern most stop on our ocean flight, around the world…

We are anchored now, the boat so trim, the weather with a slight chill,

Just over the hill is the brim, over that the lights of southern Alaska,

We have almost come to the end of the first part of our cruise,

After Anchorage, we cruise alone, no land in sight, several thousand miles,

The sky, the sea, Rufuz and me, till eventually we will see,

Our next port of entry, the Hawaiian islands on our lee…

                     © ed – 3/6/04