The lonely sea and the sky
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Wed 8 Dec 2010 18:45
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I hadn't realized until this trip how difficult it
is to comprehend the sheer size of the Earth and its oceans without experiencing
the distances first hand. Flying to Australia didn't do it, but sailing the
Atlantic has. We are travelling at about 10mph, 24 hours a day, day after day
after day. There is nothing out here except featureless sea and sky (actually
both are very beautiful, and ever changing but also ever constant, if that makes
sense). Today we have seen one other boat, no dolphins and no birds. The only
signs of life apart from us are the flying fish present in vast numbers. Every
second or so one or more, often a large shoal (are they a flock while in the
air?) is scooting away from the boat and flying quite remarkable distances. But
other than that and the occasional oceanic bird, nothing at all, day after day.
An awful lot of water and we're still 1000 miles from land so we've a lot more
of it to see yet. And the Atlantic is puny in comparison with the Pacific. The
world remains a big place when seen like this.
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