For most people, New Year's celebrations have been coloured by news filtering out of Asia about the Tsunami and its aftermath. Isolated as we are from television and newspapers (too expensive!) we have a very incomplete picture. However, the response by the public has been remarkable.
As I lay in my bunk this morning fighting to get back to sleep, I could hear the gentle sound of waves washing onto the beach some quarter of a mile away. With little wind for days, in our sheltered marina, it is difficult to imagine that it is the same sea that has snuffed out around 150,000 lives on the other side of the world. The sea amplifies your emotions, both in good times and in bad. We perhaps tend to dwell on the times when we get tested by circumstances on board, or the weather conditions, although we all recognise those highs that compensate us. We do not forget the dolphins playing, or the sound of the bow wave as we stir up the phosphoresence behind us while we look up at the stars above.
Yachties are conscious of our vulnerability to the sea, and it has been noticeable that as we have met up at celebrations over the past few days, the tragedy has dominated our conversation. While some of our friends here have personal experience of sailing in the area, we have heard from Mike and Lisa that their friends. anchored off Phuket, survived. Indeed it appears that many of the boats anchored off got through ok, while there was some severe damage in some of the marinas. Further more up to date information may be cleaned from following the links.
While at the same time we monitor Ellen Macarthur's progress at 20 knots across the Southern Oceans and through the icebergs, we can marvel at her tenacity and courage. We would never dream of undertaking the risks that she runs, but equally we can appreciate that it could all come to an untimely end, as it could so easily for us when we go out to sea. And we hope it doesn't happen, either for her or for any of us.
So may we all live our lives, not just taking but contributing what we can, in the knowledge that we will never know when our own personal Tsunami will overwhelm us. Not just today, but throughout 2005 and we hope beyond.
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