The Ballad of an Exsistential Sailor
Location: Underway to Bali
No sign of land,
Not one single tree.
Today the sun rose and set,
Only water as far as the eye could see.
We love to wander,
We yearn to be free.
My heart feels the pull,
To the long, wide, open sea.
As I emerged from the companionway for dinner, the sun, powerful in these latitudes, was burning a deep red about one and a half hands above the western horizon. It was one of those muted sunsets where you can just stare straight into the red orb without hurting your eyes. A blanket of haze had descended over our little circle of sea this evening. The breeze died off during the afternoon watch, leaving behind a glassy sea with just a hint of underlying ground swell rocking Argo gently from side to side. The haze gave the same feeling as fresh snowfall after a winter storm; a world almost silent were it not for the humming of the engine (and the yapping of the crew). Ships would appear out of the haze a few miles distant; silently and sluggishly they moved across the horizon before vanishing back into the mist.
We truly are in our own little bubble out here. There is literally an almost perfect semi-sphere which is our whole world. It grows and shrinks with changes in visibility, but it's never wider than that pesky horizon that we are constantly chasing. Compared to many of our sailing comrades from the past, we have a much better idea of where we physically are, where we are going, and what we might find when we get there. Still, on an evening like tonight, we could easily be puttering along on an endless sea. The places we left behind are just memories. The places we are going only exist in our imagination.
All that said, tomorrow we will be coming back into Bali (filling the space of both memory and imagination at the moment), where we'll go on some fun excursions, including surfing in Kuta and visiting the Uluwatu Temple, before preparing to set off on our voyage across the Indian Ocean.
This program is a special one for me as it's my last first crossing on Argo; the only route I haven't completed, the only program that still lives just in my imagination. As these 90 days go by, the places we go, the laughs we share, and the challenges we overcome will, one by one, turn into memories that helped us grow and learn. Memories we will look back on for the rest of our lives, with the nostalgia they no doubt deserve.
Best wishes from your favorite Argonauts.
Shout-out to Mom, Dad, Joss, Emily, Javi, Marla, and most of all Rioja: I miss you all every day.