Location: Underway to Fiji
Our day was captured clearly through a series of moments at the end of dinner. The crew had just been notified that there was a problem with a thing that needed to be handled before the sunset. In the midst of a unified effort to fix the thing that was not as it should be, the sun sank down into a colony of clouds resting above glassy, wavy water. Basically, it was friggin’ gorgeous, and while many members of the crew were flaking the sail onto the boom, I took out my camera and just filmed it all. I filmed toothy smiles, gritty grimaces, awesome faces, focused eyes, and chewing jaws. I filmed the way the red and yellow and orange and blue and white and gray all combined at some point out in the distance too many miles away. And during all of this, I thought about movement. I thought about, however, since yesterday morning, we have been moving west. We have been moving to the left on any map you see on any phone or AAA brochure thing. And for at least another four weeks, we will not stop. Even when we dream, or eat, or study, or laugh or cry, we will keep moving. Even when we take a break from our day to read or watch a movie in our bed, we will always be in a new place. And yes, this is because we will be sailing on a boat that won’t stop moving, but this is not the only reason.
During the sunset, I remembered something scientific and relevant: the idea that the sun itself does not set. In the words of The Flaming Lips, “it is just an illusion caused by the world spinning round and round.” I now recall the conversation I had this morning with Sam on bow watch. We looked out at the open sea and drank our coffee, and talked about our plans for the future. We told each other of the destinations we have in mind and how we feel like we can accomplish anything we set our mind to. And so, it seems as though we have a direction–it seems as though we know exactly where we are going, or maybe not exactly, but we have a good ideathe problem: we are not the only matter in the universe. While we make our plans, the world continues to spin and time continues to pass, and viruses continue to be vaccinated against, and elections are held. People are marched for, and basically, there is no straight line, and there is no point along the line in which we are still, and the world will just keep spinning and spinning and spinning.
And yet we go anyways. Surely our plans will change, surely something will not be working as it should be, and surely we will just keep moving. And still, there is beauty, and still, there is life. Onward!!!!!
I’ll be back in 27, further west, further along. Had to get deep on y’all. Peaceeeeeeeeeeeee.
p.s. we switched over the jib probably 50 times today, which explains the title.
Current position: 0309.64’S x 09325.69’W