Transatlantic: Day 8 [Day 29]

The date is July 15, 2018, and we are still moving along.

Intelligence is no longer needed, as everything today is the same as it was yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow.

Maddie and I run on 8 hour watch schedules, which gives us a full 8 hours of sleep (a glorious thing to have on the boat) but that also means that your boring watch will feel eternal. Nothing happens, nothing changes, nothingness in all directions.

Then you gaze upwards in despair and witness the splendor of the night sky. Out here, light pollution doesn’t exist and the constellations actually look like the drawings. Nebulous galactic clouds are clearly visible and the same sky that our ancestors mapped is presented before us once again.

Did they once dream of doing what we are doing right now while gazing up at these very stars?

Day 23 Azores

I just saw a magnificent shooting star. It was slow and left a thick yellow trail. I don't know whether to look up or down. The bioluminescence is especially brilliant tonight, but the stars have also never been more clear. The night isn't dark. It's radiant. Today we approached Corvo. It rose up to greet us like a giant gray shadow. As we sailed closer and its details came into focus, I lost my breath. It was equally lush and harsh. It served as the perfect beacon as we entered the Azores. Now we are only 75 miles from our destination and the whole trip suddenly feels like a dream that I'm about to wake up from. Only instead of Florida or Bermuda, I'll be in a mountainous fairy land. We have worked so hard for tomorrow. It will be a relief and a wonder. I think I might cry. Until then, I have Scorpio beside me, and the rest of the sky.