Thirty six hours ago the whole boating experience was a very different animal. I was out under the head rig tarring the stays. The weather was nice, and the sea was calm.

Since then, we've made our way into a much more open part of the sea. I think right now, the closest land mass is the NW tip of Spain, 170 nautical miles away. This is my personal record for longest time without seeing land.

But I don't think about these sorts of things when underway in big seas. I think about little things: how to walk from here to there without being hurled across the deck - and if She does try to hurl me across the deck, what's the safest thing to hang onto? There's not much time for pondering when I actually have to concentrate on walking!

One thing that has come to mind is a book called "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler that I read in high school. The author pointed out that airplanes get people to exotic destinations too fast. You arrive in a place, where your language, culture and way of life are challenged at every turn. The other side of that coin is going somewhere by boat, or even walking, where your body has time to adjust to the time zones and think about where you're going. Sure, I've been to foreign countries before, but I've never gotten there using anything slower than a fast train.

Needless to say, I will be keeping a close eye out for land.
 

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