It is hard to convey the sheer insignificance of humanity in the grand scheme of creation. Humans are all absorbed in the minutiae of their everyday existence to appreciate the immensity of the cosmos. We are less significant than a grain of sand or a speck of dust. The first solo watch that one stands on any voyage out in the vast expanses of the ocean drives this point home. As I crawl up the ladder, attempting to shake myself into consciousness after a very deep nap, I am greeted by an enveloping black void. There is a faint iridium glow coming from the cockpit and I stumble my way over blocks, lines, winches, and grinders to relieve the watch. As the status report is given to me, I chance a glance into the heavens and am astounded with a starry blanket strewn across the sky. The dismal overcast from merely a few hours before has given way to a brilliant glimpse into the cosmos. Jamie finishes his report and makes his way down below. My eyes begin to adjust and what first seemed like inky blackness begins to resolve itself into different shades of dark blue.
Infinity surrounds me. Every direction I look stretches off into an unbroken horizon- 360 degrees around me. Enough of staring at the horizon I tell myself and once again glance upwards. Now that my night vision has adjusted I am astonished at the number of stars that I see. There is almost no blackness in the sky but instead a mottled atmosphere of pinpricks of light and nebulous clouds. The Milky Way is splashed across the heavens and I can clearly make out Orion the Hunter. Above the masthead is Mars glowing with her reddish beauty. It is impossible to not be sucked into the unknown, the limitless, the infinite. My mind is lost in the attempt to comprehend the sheer magnitude of creation that is stretched out in front of me. I shake myself out of my reverie and the sounds of the night wash across me.
Wind gently whistles through the rigging. The occasional line or block will snap or pop sending an echo through the hull of the boat. Swells are split by the hull and the resulting foam surges and then quietly dissipates. Bioluminescent algae sparkles as the Whistle Wing slowly ghosts by. I take a look at our instruments and realize that the depth sounder is showing no bottom. Even below me seems infinite, at least from a practical human perspective. Here I am, alone on watch at night, literal infiniteness is stretched out above me, the horizon continues to go on beyond eyesight, and below the boat is a chasm into the unknown depths of the ocean. How can I not begin to contemplate the sheer insignificance of humanity? We do not even register on the scale of creation when placed in this context.
The watch continues to pass by, minute after minute. The wind begins to shift and I must alter course. Just like that the solitude of the watch, the peace as well as the mind boggling perplexities of creation are quickly driven from my mind, to be revisited the next night. I look down at my watch and realize that I have been lost in an introspective trance for the better part of two hours. It is time to wake up my relief and prepare for bed. I am left with the final thought that no matter how insignificant we may seem in the grand scale of creation- who cares about the infinite. What is most important is right here and now. It is fun to get lost in the infinite, to try to wrap our minds around a thought, a notion, an idea that we can’t ever fully appreciate, but what is the relevance. It brings me back to philosophy classes and the Platonic Theory of Forms. We have a notion of the infinite, but it is impossible to ever convey. My musings lead me to the conclusion- why even bother to try. These thoughts are best kept to ourselves. It is the only way to fully contemplate these mysteries without driving ourselves insane by trying to describe the indescribable.
Today I woke up a little before 8 and crawled up onto deck and was welcomed by a warm Mexican sun. We seem to have shaken off most of the cold from up north and are slowly but surely making our way into warmer waters. Throughout the course of the day we were able to mainly wear short sleeves and pants. In the shade and when the breeze picked up we would switch over to sweaters or fleeces, but the climate is most assuredly warming up. Pretty soon we will be wishing for just one cold day like we had yesterday or will have tonight. We flew the custom made asymmetrical spinnaker for the first time today because we were on a broad reach running from a northerly wind. True to form Mike has made sure that anyone who sees us flying the chute will know what boat it is. The sail resembles the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The eye from the logo of the Whistle Wing has been reflected so that there are two eyes looking at each other. The base color of the sail is black and there are a few blue stripes around the outside. In short it looks like eyes of the Cheshire Cat peeking out from a completely black chute. Not going to lie- it looks awesome. It will go well with the new battle flag that Mike had made that announces to anyone watching, the Whistle Wing is here.
Then calamity hit the boat. The very first time our head was used, it was broken. To make matters worse it was broken by the random passenger we have that is only going to be with us till Cabo. The one piece that broke turned out to be probably the only backup piece that Mike does not have for any system on board the boat. I am pretty sure that we could rip out everything that is installed in the boat and he would find something in some hidey hole to replace it with. That is not the case with this one little plastic piece. Two hours, several combinations of words that I have not heard since working with other sailors, and many loud bangs later- Mike managed to jury rig a temporary fix until Leslie (his wife) meets us in La Paz with his wish list of various odds and ends. Thankfully he is handy because Joe and I were not looking forward to using a bucket for the entirety of the trip, especially with female guests coming in the next few months. We proceeded to stuff a couple other spinnakers, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, into their chutes so that we will have a variety of thicknesses and sizes ready to go depending on wind conditions.
After we finished packing the chutes, fixing the head, and doing a few sail changes and gybes, I went below to try to make a PB&J sandwich. I was asked to go ahead and make some for everyone. An hour later and the entire contents of our food stores strewn across the cabin it became clear to all of us that we purchased jelly, but it never made it on to the boat. Yum, I do dearly love peanut butter sandwiches. (Insert sarcastic grimace) Oh well, at least we have plenty of other options to eat for lunch and snacks, and it is an easy thing to replace. It just makes me wonder what else was on the list that we will figure out did not make it on to the boat. Only time will tell. Overall it has been a nice day of cruising. Decent wind, great weather, good company, and the food was- nourishing? Who knows what lays in store for me this coming watch or tomorrow. That is part of the adventure, the unknown- the thing right beyond the horizon that we keep sailing toward, keep trying to chase down, but never really get there. Kind of like life eh?
On a side note, we changed our watch bill so that now we will just keep the same watches. Jamie, the guy with the easy dog watches right now, will be gone soon enough and when he is gone we will just not stand that watch. We figured that was the easiest thing so that our bodies would get used to being awake at the same time. Easier to avoid falling asleep on watch this way when your body is used to standing the mid-watch and all of a sudden you are standing watch when you are used to falling asleep after a long night right then. I also have the 9-12 watch and I would be awake anyway, so there are no complaints coming from me on this decision. On that note I will sign off for this entry and throw on a movie or TV show before my watch.
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