Location: Underway to San Blas
HI BLOG!
Prologue Introducing Time
A few days ago, someone asked a squeeze question, Whats something you would steal if you could get away with it? I answered with the only thing I could think of time. It feels like its been an eternity since I last wrote a blog in early December, so Im writing this blog about time and how strange it is. This is probably just going to be a super messy dump of existential thoughts, but thats where my crazy brain is going right now, so I apologize in advance.
Chapter 1 Checking the Time
I started this fine day absolutely hooning at 9 knots in the middle of the Caribbean and waking up Shane and Nacho for their watch at midnight. This wakeup, we had Nacho once again continue his streak of immediately smiling into consciousness and giving me a thumbs up. Always so pleasant. Please reference the photo of Nachos donkey keychain ziplining (shoutout to the students for gifting all of the staff donkey or flamingo keychains in Bonaire). Shanes wakeup, on the other hand, is always a gamble and a vastly different experience each time, which, honestly, on passage keeps things interesting. Tonight, it was nearly impossible to pull him out of deep REM, and after what felt like several minutes of shaking his arm, he jolted up. My mistake, Charlie reminded me, was that I forgot to make him look at the time on his watch a lesson I learned when I didnt notice his headlight turn on after 7 minutes, so I tragically had to wake him a second time.
Chapter 2 How to Fill Time
After recounting my always uniquely harrowing experience of waking up my coworkers to my watch team, Ruby, Stella, Helena, Arthur, Sydney, Meg, Jonas, Avery, Charlie, and I handed off the helm and zonked out for about 7 hours. We woke to the sun having risen, a few waves splashing over the starboard stern (rip to Shanes sheets and the charthouse floor), and another broken egg saga for me to deal with in the salon. Jonas and Avery were the real heroes of this morning and helped pump out some water weve had in our engine room bilge. Jazmyn and Nacho chafed up some nacho bowls (haha) for lunch, and Arthur fought for his life on the low side, trying to overcome seasickness. I had a rare, fully free afternoon, so I took a nap, played cards, watched some videos from my childhood, and then took another brief nap. Charlie is happy to report that he received a full 4 hours of nap time. Students not on watch or cooking raced to finish their 1-2 page Lion Fish essays for marine bio due tomorrow, or studied for their lines tests for seamanship. Shoutout to Nacho for being a sous chef two days in a row. After Jazmyns spaghetti and salad dinner, I asked the squeeze question, If you could go back and relive (just experience, not change anything) one 24-hour period from your life so far, what would it be? And then I blasted Pink Pony Club during cleanup while trying to helm straight amidst the deckie squad around Colbie and me, bringing out some questionable but delectable gummy sushi.
Chapter 3 Reflection Time
Spending meaningful time with someone, how wonderful that feeling is. Passage can be a time to reflect, learn, hunker down and survive, hibernate and rest, or just exist. We obsess over time on passage the ETA, how many hours left of watch, how many hours until watch, is dinner going to be on time? I wish I could say I was better about asking these kinds of questions, but we all do, at least in our heads. On watch, we are confined to the cockpit for 4 hourshow do we make the best use of our time? Last night on watch, Avery and Jonas mentioned how crazy it is that the stars were currently viewing are actually images from thousands of years ago. Thats absolutely insane, and I wont allow myself any more time to ponder that concept for fear of never being able to post this blog. Every day as I wrestle with and confront these big concepts and constructs of time, I remember to live with no regrets, for theres no time to lose.
Epilogue The Timing of the Universe
This morning, Charlie was telling Ruby about the scar he valiantly earned on his day off in Mallorca this fall, which he got to take on his birthday, October 12th, when all of a sudden, I spotted a couple of dolphins jump right off our starboard side. Sydney, Helena, Kaitie, and I rushed to the bow to say hi, but interestingly, only one individual dolphin stuck around to play in the waves around us. How lucky are we that that dolphin chose to spend their time with us today?
Big Rach / Rakle
Hi Phi, Abs, Brie, McKenna, and fam!