What A Time
Location: Mossel Bay, South Africa
It’s day 79 today, and conversations are starting to alter from “when we do this” to “remember when.” Watch entertainment has been full of reminiscing over these last three months, sailing across the Indian… some nearly 6700 nautical miles ago. Stories of swimming with whale sharks in Indonesia, cliff jumping in Christmas Island, spotting manta rays from the boat in Cocos Keeling, hiking to mountain peaks in Mauritius, and watching a herd of some 200 elephants trek across the South African savanna. What an incredible journey it’s been.
I thought for sure I could find a word on the Internet to describe this feeling, but apparently, it doesn’t exist. The feeling of something that feels like it happened years ago, and yesterday at the same time. I know, right? Can someone come up with a word for that? Maybe I will because ChatGPT couldn’t. But anyway, there’s so much to reflect on, so much to be unbelievably grateful for.
Today’s squeeze question was “if you could thank Vela for one thing, what would it be?” For me, the answer is simple. Taking a handful of people that would quite literally never have the opportunity to spend one day all together in the outside world, never mind 90… put them on a boat together, and somehow, someway, a family forms. A family that gets to see things and experience feelings that nobody else on earth has ever seen or done before. A family that gets to spend hours on end together staring at the stars at some coordinate that no human has ever been to before. A family that gets to bond over that one gnarly day that had everyone leaning over the low side. A family that will be forever the only people in the whole world that will truly understand what we just accomplished. We can tell stories, we can show pictures, but nobody except for the 23 of us will ever fully comprehend the last three months we’ve had.
As the days dwindle and we all start to realize just how quickly this is coming to an end… look around a little more. You guys at home can do it too. Look up at the stars a little longer, have that conversation that you’ve been thinking about with someone, stay up a few extra minutes to play a game and laugh with your friends, just look around and take it all in. Be kind, be grateful, and tell the people you love that you love them.
That’s all
To all the families back home… we love you & we’re so grateful for you.
All the love & all the hugs,
Emma