We are approaching land, St. Lucia is within reach, she lies there somewhere straight in front, and hopefully we will be harbored in Rodney Bay (who was he?) around sunset today.
Despite her sand beaches, tropical rainforest and numerous technical repair shops (according to a sailors guide I found casually laying around our navigation station) I long for a Rum Punch or two to balance out the millions of wave compensating
data stored in my brain.
An Atlantic crossing is so much more than just that. I have come to understand why there are so many books written about being on a ship, the ship as the universe, the ship as the world, the ship as your life, etc. etc. but in my capacity it´s
like a bloody gameshow.
You know the kind where people are going somewhere for a limited time, with or without clothes, food, or sex, and often it may seem, a brain. It’s a social experiment where all and nothing is at stake. We are some guys moving a friend’s boat from
the Grand Canary Island to the Caribbean.
We are sailing people competing in a huge boat race, trying to combine all our skills and manners so that the operation will go smooth like an election in a one party state (or worst case a two party state)We are hounds getting our feelings and
bodies hurt by loud commands and sharp metal piercing the same toe again, just because a sheet is not behaving on deck at night in howling winds threatening to snap the mast.
Hey man I didn’t sign up for this, where is my beauty sleep? Where is the politeness from other people, normally greasing my ego back home? And what normally is a friendly request sounds more like an order from a sergeant or pissed off spouse.
And why is there no hot water? (Well apparently the skipper wants to lighten the back of the ship, so shower in your next life douche).
Food? Yeah right, whatever, nobody died of oatmeal yet, and whenever we have enough electricity to play some music, how on earth/sea do you combine Buddha Bar 31 with Spanish guitar preferences? (Ahhh!, right now someone put on Albatross by Fleetwood
Mac…but then I remember that Albatross will be extinct in a few years due to all the plastic floating around in the Pacific, and its an irreversible trend!!!).
Apparently no one claims to own the ocean unless they need a whale, some shark fins, oil & gas or a military base. So littering the oceans with plastic will go on until some kid of a world leader, or actually all the kids of all state leaders
choke on a floating birth control piece of rubber whilst swimming outside some all-inclusive resort.
OK, I realise I might have one of those moments we all have to seldom when we dig too deep into reality, and that’s exactly what I like about this journey. You get time to think and discuss everything from politics, via electric cars, to colours
of coffee pods to refugee situations, wars & peace and even The Karamazov brothers.
How often do you have the chance to completely empty the entire house of memories and thoughts from cellar to loft, and then refurbish it all over again? Finding a well-hidden story from childhood deep hidden and maybe getting rid of an unnecessary
memory of a no good person not worthy any more thoughts? NOT VERY OFTEN!
Some of us had the luxury to speak to our beloved ones for a brief moment last night (on a satellite phone, you know the telecom commercial where the business man is away and calls his wife (always a 10er BTW), and she handles the phone to the
A grade kid in a spotless pyjama), well those commercials are truth well told. Technology is fantastic, but I think people back in the day lived stronger, more, bigger. Before telex, radio and woman’s right to vote (yeah I know woman still have little access
to the ballots in some areas of Suisse and Saudi Arabia).
This sail-race has become so much more than I anticipated, and I really hope I will be able to share and express some of my experiences to my nearest with the help of a laptop, a pizza and some soft drink (hopefully the soft drink comes from a
recyclable plastic bottle eventually becoming a fleece garment of a company giving 1% of their revenue to a project saving the Albatross.)
I also realised that what I just wrote about living stronger is a western way of life thing. In many parts of the world, people still live the old school way, and I start to remember an article/fun fact I read in The Economist some months ago.
7 out of 10 happiest inhabitants in the world (not richest etc.), but populations that think they have a good life quality, are from Latin America. Honduras, El Salvador and Columbia on top as I remember. Chew on that;)
Oh, I almost forgot, we are currently boat #1 in the multihull class and among all the 250 cruising boats we are #2! That should put NEMO's crew on the top ten list of The Economist survey.