We are on land! We are alive and we are on land!
I thought I was hallucinating when we first spotted land, real earth with trees growing on it and cars rolling along it.
And then we nearly didn’t make it into the harbor, because my dad and Uncle Stew got into a major major fight. It started with Uncle Stew asking who was going to sort out getting The Wanderer repaired, and if the rest of us should rent a car and drive on to Bompie’s instead of waiting to sail to England when The Wanderer was fixed.
In the middle of arguing over that, they started fighting over which adult would stay with the boat, and then Uncle Stew said Sophie should stay too; she shouldn’t go to Bompie’s! Brian agreed with him. Then Sophie came below deck in the middle of all this and said, “I’m going to Bompie’s and that’s that.”
It’s a mess.
We tried phoning Mom, but there was no answer. Then Sophie tried her parents: no answer. Then Uncle Stew tried phoning his wife, and he got the answering machine, so he left a message saying we’d arrived. I couldn’t believe no one was home! I thought they’d all be waiting by the phone, but Uncle Dock said, “Well, they had no idea when we’d reach land—it could’ve been three days ago or next week or—” and he’s right, I guess, but it would’ve been nice to hear a familiar voice celebrating our arrival.
Sophie got a little panicky. “Where are they?” she asked, over and over.
Right now we are wobbling around learning how to walk again, and my dad has gone off to rent a car to drive from here to England, and we still don’t know who all is going yet.
But we’re on land! And we’re alive!