We’ve been at sea for six days now. No news, not even the Reuters text edition. Haven’t bothered to download it. We do have some podcasts we listen to which are generally discussions about topics we’re really interested in. TED Talks are kind of neat. We have a Spotify subscription so that we can download music on a monthly basis - kind of important when there’s no way to stream music out here. Recently a bartender helped me discover Suvaemente, and I’ve been listening to the playlist today while watching the world go by.
We’ve been fortunate with the weather so far, especially the gentle, generally flat seas. Ten to thirteen knots makes for great sailing and the wind waves aren’t a bother. This passage we’ve had no adverse swell either, and the Southeast swell we’ve noticed today makes for a pleasurable up and down motion as we wander Northwards.
The mahi mahi have almost been jumping into the boat the past couple of days, so we’ve got something like 13 vacuum sealed mahi mahi meals now in the freezer. If that keeps up we’ll have to be careful about how much salmon we catch this summer.
We’re on the Western edge of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a Thing. We’ve both seen plastic debris in the water, including bottles, fishing floats, some rather heavy sections of rope and net, and other unidentifiable objects. Ronnie Simpson warned us about motoring in this area due to the risk of wrapping a section of rope around a prop and trashing a propulsion system. He learned that lesson the hard way.
It’s troubling to see the plastic in the water, but plastic debris, especially fishing debris, is something we got used to seeing on the windward side of the atolls in the Tuamotus of French Polynesia. It wasn’t unusual to walk down a stretch of reef and count thousands of objects of all descriptions just in the space of a mile or so. Shoes of all kinds, toothbrushes, light bulbs, fishing floats and nets, barrels, sunglasses, shiny mylar party balloons, just all kinds of insane stuff.
We’ve been out here long enough to realize that the human race is trashing the place. Maybe I’ll write a song, or a poem.
Still, it’s amazing to survey the horizon 360 degrees and see nothing but beautiful blue water, blue skies with little puffy clouds, amazing sunrises and sunsets. All those distractions inherent to a consumer driven economy are missing. FaceBook isn’t trying to see how long it can keep us engaged. There’s no idiotic political news full of talking heads and pundits who love the sound of their own voices and do their best to shout each other down. There’s just the sound of the sea, the boat wake, the rig creaking occasionally or the sails luffing in a wind shift. Oh yeah, also Chevy the autopilot which has a hydraulic actuator that makes a little noise, but that’s a noise we have learned to love because Chevy leaves us free to deal with everything else, including seeking peace and relaxation.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Isabel looking as serene as she did today. Could be I’ve never felt more chilled out myself. We don’t feel absolute joy everyday, but when we do, we recognize how fortunate we are. We found one another. We made decisions many years ago that enabled us to be where we are today. Life is good.
I made peanut butter cookie dough today, and it’s in the fridge. Tomorrow we’ll be eating hot cookies with our coffee. Might not even put the fishing lines in the water until afterwards. Who wants to be interrupted in the middle of coffee and fresh hot cookies?
I wonder how much fun we can have.
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