Tuesday, 09/24/13 At Sea Day 3

Tuesday, 09/24/13 At Sea Day 3

After the calm day yesterday, the captain said that the ship would encounter another storm early this morning, and indeed, about 7:00 a.m., the ship began to encounter rough seas. By 8:00 a.m. the full force of the storm was upon the ship, with high winds and high seas, and throughout the day, the storm increased until mid-afternoon, when it finally began to abate. On the TV weather channel, the wind speed was 63 knots, or 72 mph; the seas were 12-26 feet, or 4-8 meters. This storm was more intense than the storm of two days ago, even though the winds were not as high. The ship listed very badly, making walking much more difficult than in the previous storm. Perhaps the difference was wind direction.

At breakfast, I sat at a large table with others, and the subject of living life until the end of life -- including travel -- came up. That led to a discussion of the amount of time left before dying, and a woman at the table, Paula, from Queensland, Australia, talked about having a heart attack at age 24, and living on borrowed time since then (she said she is now 66). She then talked about having “died” when she had a heart attack, and I asked her to describe that experience. She said that she had a feeling of such intense peace that it was completely indescribable. She then went on to describe the feeling of regaining consciousness and how the feeling of intense peace slowly evaporated. She said that since then, she has absolutely no fear of dying because she is certain that death is that state of intense, indescribable peace. She was a midwife, and she talked about sitting with people who were dying, and when she touched them, she was able to transfer that feeling of peace to them. When they were very agitated, her touch calmed them and gave them peace.