occasionally the silhouette of massive rock cliffs, then moments later, right before the giant waves hit us, our anchor light would reflect off the white caps…. we see I would hit full throttle…. Turn the boat hard and hit the waves head on clipping the top four or five feet of the wave… WAH BOOMB…. As a four foot wall of water comes slamming through the boat….. if it is not tied down it is gone. The sides of the boat are only about a foot high, we are completely submerged. Round the compass is worthless, the GPS is worthless. I kept repeating the words out loud… It can’t sink, it can’t sink, don’t panic, trust your equipment, Help us Lord Jesus….. and Round…
Suddenly there is a bright star or a planet. It is the only thing is the sky except the huge black clouds blocking the rest of the stars and the moon. This super bright star is not only out there, it is in the exact right place where I can see it in the 2 o’clock position, lock in on our bearing, and follow it back out to sea. The waves stop breaking. We get in the shelter of some islands. Wow, we are still going. The mission is still on!!!!
When I turned a computer on, we were already on the home page of the Faroe Islands. They were looking for us. The local newspapers carried our story. The next day the Volvo boat dealer calls us liars… there is no way we went through Tinderholm at night in that storm and survived. He said, “It is like putting a raisin in a pot of boiling water, then putting the lid on, and the raisin getting out.” So the head of the Faroe Islands Public Affairs who translated for us checked our GPS…. Sure enough the evidence was clear… we survived Tinderholm….
WE ARE ALIVE.
Do we wait for day light or try to make Torshavn tonight? Bob takes the helm. He gets us there.
I try to sleep. So cold, so wet, I fall to sleep in total exhaustion.
God smiled on us.
| The Bellwether |
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