22:02.925N 027:58.317W
Monday 23rd November
For the last 24 hours we've had confused and very rough seas
making life onboard very difficult and uncomfortable. The wind has been gusting
up to 30 knots (gale force 7) at times so even the simplest of tasks become
difficult to do. Sleeping is pretty much impossible at the moment so we're
having to take every opportunity throughout the day to get some rest. And to
make things worse we've got 2.2 knots of tide going against us so we aren't
actually covering as many miles as we think we are.
On the plus side, Paul managed to bake a loaf of fresh bread this morning and
made us all scrumptious bacon sandwiches! And, the sun is still shining! So I
suppose we've got to take the good with the bad!
However, we are still having to remind ourselves why we are actually doing
this...........
This is an excerpt from a book called 'The Breath of Angels' by John Beattie
that Paul read years ago which inspired him to get on and do this dream trip.
"The reality of what I was doing came crashing down upon me. I had a good
job, sound health and a woman who loved me. Most men would have given their eye
teeth for her, but here was I, selfishly indulging my whims, leaving her and
taking off in a beat-up boat going nowhere slowly - all because of a book I had
read as a child.
But there was more to it than that. I knew that life, which can be snuffed out
in an instant, is very short. I also knew that it is very easy to fall into a
comfortable routine that leads inexorably to the grave. Most men are forced to
lead lives of subdued frustration and end up getting stuck in a groove. The
only difference between being in a groove and in a grave is one of depth. Along
the way to that grave in the comfortable groove, you might get a new car or a
greenhouse or, if you really hit the big time, a holiday home - but these
things are palliatives, the opiate of a materialistic lifestyle that is
impoverished through lack of meaning. I wasn't interested in the trappings of
material success - all they lead to is entrapment in the spiritual failure -
and the conventional rewards of career advancement meant nothing to me. With
each passing year, I would give way to the cautious sobriety of middle age.
Whatever happened, I didn't want to end up dumped in an armchair in an old
people's home looking back on a life of comfortable but frustrate existence.
I also knew that the world is a big, beautiful place, and I wanted to
experience as much of it as I could in the spilt second of eternity that was
allocated to me. I had seen too many of my friends die young to wait any longer
to fulfill my dream. It was self-indulgent and it wasn't working out as planned
- but what the hell. Life was too precious to be squandered to denying dreams,
even if they turned out to be sour. I was determined to try to take hold of my
life and squeeze every drop out of it. There is no God, no meaning, no purpose
- all we have is love and existential experience. The sea was where I might
lose one but where I knew I would find the other."
