Can't Get Enough of That ETA
Location: Underway to the Marquesas
Argo is equipped with state-of-the-art navigation systems, including a full-screen 10-inch chart plotter that displays our course and speed in very clear detail. And can you guess what else it displays in very, very clear detail? Yeah, our ETA or estimated time of arrival. Lucky for us, the ETA tells us how many days we have left until we make it to our destination. But unlike Google Maps, which is relatively accurate, ours has a gimmick; it can be off, like days off. I would say it is like a rose. When the wind is strong and we are sailing fast, it is very pretty to look at, but when the ship slows down and that ETA starts climbing, the thorns poke and definitely sting.
I just love waking up at 4 in the morning to stare at an ETA thats 8 days longer than it was the night before. For this reason, we were advised to look at it as little as possible before our trans-Pacific passage, and as a very humble and compliant crew member, I obviously refrained from looking at it… Anyway, when the ETA hit 2 days this morning, I was really happy! Just like that, after almost 16 days of passage now, our ocean crossing is almost coming to an end. Jokes aside, the ETA did teach me, and I am sure a lot of us on board a very important lesson about presence. It was intimidating at first to think about 20 days at sea. Some were dreading it, many were excited, and I was eager yet a little nervous to surpass this impressive challenge. As days went by, many of us itched to get to land, with that damned ETA blaring on the screen from across the cockpit. But I learned to put it aside, ignore the temptation, and find comfort in the routine and life I got to live on passage. Night watches started flying by as I admired the full bright Milky Way or enjoyed a mug of instant ramen while I laughed with my watch mates. I found motivation in getting through classes just to be able to jump on deck and eat a snack, or enjoy a bit of relaxation watching a show in my bunk. By the end of the first week, I had almost forgotten how crazy it was that we were literally in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with no land for thousands of miles, simply sailing into the sunset day after day. I was in a very enjoyable trance, and to my surprise, I even got used to seeing nothing but open ocean every day; it is actually 50 shades of blue. For 16 days, all we saw was water and skies and clouds, and yet I loved it. The passage also turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I grew into the routine and enjoyed every day of it. Still, I am human, and humans are not made to live on the ocean forever. So I am now looking forward to setting foot on solid ground and maybe even to just touch grass again for the first time in weeks. We all miss our loved ones back home as well, and I know I am excited to tell them all about how I successfully sailed across the Pacific.
Passage is a lot more fun when you don’t look at the ETA. So seriously don’t (trust me, it’ll make the time go by a little faster too)
Also, shoutout to Watch Team 1 for carrying Argo across the Pacific.