Having received this from Greg today I felt it was too good to change and worthy of a share.
Enjoy -Matt
Your mind does strange things when you’re tired and on watch day after day, night after night and the weather prevents you, mostly, from being distracted with other means.
You start to drift in your mind, always focused on the instruments diligently reporting our position, speed, distance to go etc.
They become more meaningful than you might realise and start to take on a life of their own. The DTD or distance to destination becomes very focal and we noticed a rather strange thing happening with the numbers.
They started to carry us on a journey through our lives and even beyond, to the history that our lives are built upon. The DTD started to represent years.
When we started this journey we had roughly 2100Nm to go to the other side. A future year for us and unwritten, as of yet. A little like this journey across an ocean still a story to be told.
As we progressed through the first day the Nm’s remaining counter ticked down and we started to note we were sailing through years of history.
2022 came up on the remaining nm to go counter on the first night. It marked the year we started all this sailing across the Atlantic business.
Soon after 2020 ticked over, marking covid, the purchase of Waiata, moving countries from NZ to the UK, and many other things that set us up on this path to the middle of the ocean.
1999 was the first number below the 2000 Nm’s to come up, and of course Prince came to mind, cos’ tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999 (but that’ll have to wait in reality till we complete).
Tick Tick and soon 1984 had passed by and both myself and Nick thought of the George Orwell book and our different beliefs in society and control.
The early 1980’s passed as each of Nick and Amy’s birthday years was recounted with memories of their early years.
1969 and man journed further from our shores than ever before, arriving on another celestial body for the first time. Brought thoughts of how poignant that would be when will be in the middle and closer to the space station than any other man on earth.
Then of course the 1960’s and Greg and Connie’s years of birth were noted and tried to be forgotten :-). And a reminder that the Admiral will this year celebrate her 62nd birthday while still undertaking this very journey before we again sight land.
Then as the seas grew gradually rougher and more inhospitable, 1945 passed by and the Second World War seemed an appropriate discussion of hardships and how comfortable we really were in our floating, albeit demonically controlled, condomaran.
Soon after that was 1929 and the Great Depression. How lucky are we here living dreams in the middle of an ocean without having to worry about how to feed ourselves or where we’ll sleep tonight.
1918 passed by as the First World War and many remembrances were had of places we had visited around the Mediterranean where soldiers had fought and died valiantly and many a plaque claimed world war would never be allowed to happen again.
1905 – a song by famous kiwi songstress Shona Laing. Not one of us can remember the lyrics. Although we do know she was glad she wasn’t a Kennedy.
As we continue to roll past history and closer to our destination, closer I guess to the birth of a rather famous character in zero AD, we’ll pass great men and great times.
1812 – the great overture that was written with the sounds of canons firing in celebration of the French and their revolution. Viva la France. Goodbye Napoleon.
1776 – and the American Revolution revolted across the states. Some rode their way into history such as Paul Revere shouting ‘the red coats are coming, the red coats are coming’, whilst others such as General Custer made their last stand.
1666 and the battle of Hastings, iconic in the building of England.
1400 – We’ll be one third of the way across the Atlantic.
But of all the years, memories and grand events, we’ll always be reminded of how great these particular times will be between crew, on boat and on shore for many years to come.
This journey has become part of our family history, the greater family with Greg, Connie, Nick, Matt, Roger, Michael and Alex all forming part of this family and this journey.
Aren’t we lucky to be able to sail through time and all these wonderful peoples lives whilst building memories and history for our own and those we love.
Strange things happen when you spend days and night watching miles tick by in the shadows of ocean swells, arriving like mobile mountains.
You become moved. -Greg
2 Responses
Heart stopping reading with the sail in the water. Yikes! Good save by all.
Loved reading the numerical count down as you sail away the miles.
Looking forward to the next update.
Safe sails on this incredible adventure.
Hxx
Wow, what a thought provoking piece.
In my dim and distant past I sailed across the North Sea from Norway to the UK, slightly different to our wet crew as our watches consisted of two intrepid sailors rather than being alone.
There were still times on that journey though that one feels tiny in comparison to the surroundings sometimes when gazing at the many celestial bodies normally invisible in our busy lives but become visible due to lack of light pollution. Other times when you are called to a change a foresail in a force 8 gale with the waves trying to steal the deck from below you.