Passing of time while sailing around the world
Picture: my latest tattoo
Have you ever felt that time has different speeds in different circumstances?
A day can sometimes feel like a blink of moment, but other times it’s endless. It feels like the clock just stopped, and there’s no sign that the day will ever end. I guess it’s being affected by our mental and physical state, the environment we are in and the people we are surrounded by.
When I was planning the round the world voyage, I thought that I will have plenty of spare time so I can learn new skills such as to code, improve my English, get fit(ter), read work related articles, sign up to online courses and so on.
18 months on a boat should be enough to learn at least two new languages if I really commit, right?
I thought so, and I was naive. So naive. Time frankly is a social concept which we all experience independently. We all have twenty-four hours in a day but everything else is different and I think one of the most important factors is the number of hours we have of daylight. The movement of circling around the sun and the moon around us sets a tone for our days. Maybe this is less important in places like London but in the last seven months I learned that the life I lived in the Big Smoke was not an average life that most people have.
Countries near to the equator have 12 hours daylight and 12 hours night-time. At 6pm the sun literarily falls down from the sky and it becomes dark until 6am when it pings back like roly-poly toy and when electricity is not unlimited you do seek alignment with this rhythm.
Time while blue water sailing
This type of time is my favourite currently and the reason is because of the hardcore routine we have when sailing across oceans. Three hours on, six or nine hours off (depending on the size of the crew) day in, day out. In my previous blog about 24 hours at sea (https://www.luckysailor.world/post/24-hours-on-the-atlantic) tells about this experience. We had two long legs so far. One from Portugal to St Lucia (29 days non stop sailing) and the Pacific Ocean crossing (24 days non stop sailing). The first 5-7 days usually are difficult to get into the routine but after life on the boat becomes a flow of actions melted together into one big memory. When I look back to those crossings, it feels they were much quicker.
Time while cruising
For me it’s the most difficult part. Island hoping in French Polynesia required little sailing and loads of time anchoring. There is no purpose for the days other than seeking for fun and joy in the form of activities such as hiking, snorkelling, sightseeing, eating out and drinking. It’s fine to do this for a week or two but not for six. We have spent the last two months cruising. It’s felt like years.
Picture: morning coffee at Bora Bora
Time during heavy weather
Heavy weather means that the wind is strong, most likely its pouring rain and its even worse when this all happening at night. It can be scary both at anchorage and while sailing.
The other day we were hit by a storm while mooring in a bay of Moorea. Usually, these places are well sheltered and have a good grip for the anchor. Well. Not in Moorea. We spent a few nights in a lagoon in between steep mountain valleys and the wind just accelerated like crazy one night, so we dragged 100 meters from the original places we anchored at.
I went up to the cockpit because everything was screaming and shaking below deck and the solar panel was getting loose and banging on the canopy.
Mark and Helen came up soon after me and we took the solar panel down, turned on the instruments and saw on the plotter that our position is 150 meters from where we were. It was suspicious because there were a few boats swinging around us that were not familiar.
We had 45 meters chain out and an oversized anchor, but Misty stilled dragged 150 meters. It was pure luck that we didn’t collide with another boat.
We pulled in the whole chain and motored back to the original place in our pyjamas while watching all the people on the boats running around with their torches. This whole situation escalated and resolved within three hours, but these three hours felt like minutes.
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We started our adventure physically on the 1st of November 2022. Seven months ago.
When I scroll back on the pictures, I took it feels like a lifetime. So many experiences, so many memories, challenges and changes happened in my life in the last seven months that it’s difficult to digest. Being out of my comfort zone almost all the time makes me focus more, helps me to be in the present. It also means that the sense of time becomes quite irrelevant. Doesn’t matter if its Sunday or Tuesday, morning or evening, February or May because what is important is the present. To stay safe, healthy and as much as possible, and enjoy the moment.
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