Two hundred miles more today
I’m in the middle of the ocean, as far away from land as I’ve ever been before and as far as I’ll ever be. After a while here, days are just a repetition of the ones before and, if nothing changes (which we cross our fingers won’t happen), the day to come will also be the same: water all around us.
Now that I’m experiencing what it is to be at this side of the beach I start seeing every aspect of our points of reference turned 180�. The shore is no longer the end but the beginning, the sea no longer where you go but where you come from. And that changes everything else.
I have every second of the day to think. Apart from a few hours a day cooking and cleaning up there’s not much to do, and, strange enough, days seem to go faster than you might expect. Maybe it’s because we sleep at short periods and anytime during the day, but I think it’s mainly because we spend ages just sitting close to the deck and let our mind go through all those thoughts we didn’t have time for on land. The past, the future and all the philosophical questions try to get solved in these blank unoccupied hours.
It’s amazing how everybody seems to be doing the life check lately, all we talk is about success, failure, dreams, mistakes, losses and winnings. It’s like being stranded, held in stand-by. Incommunicado, we feel the world has stopped and things will be exactly the same when we resurface. We don’t hear from our friends, our partners or anything about our lives before the trip, we don’t even see the news. For us, time has made a parenthesis, because we are completely out of the game, for the rest, life continues.
And I guess that’s why, after 10 days away, I have a deep urge to take back my place in life, with all the elements around me. I suddenly need to organize some stuff but I can’t, because there’s nothing I can do before I get to the other side.
In a way it’s nerve wracking, because I feel powerless and impatient, but on the other hand, it takes away the guilty feeling of not addressing issues quick enough that we usually carry around in normal life.
Anyway, very deep and very strenuous, but a good mental workout. I’m ready to tie the dinghy to the dock, drink an enormous cocktail and hear other people’s stories. Ah! and the email, man we get hooked to things fast… They make bets here that I’m going first to the internet caf� then to the bar!!
