I wrote this while at sea
Why I took this trip:
- To allow my head to catch up to my proverbial behind while still getting where I want to go.
- To listen to my body since I hate going to the doctor, and figure out if I have any real ailments other than stress and a lot of time zones wearing on my body.
- To cross the Pacific like my dad and Colonel S had in the Military. My dad talked about it so much it left an insecurity.
- To see places from a new perspective and to see terra incognita
- To Connect Asia and North America in my head the way my trip on the QM2 had done it for me for Europe. I fee like if you take a boat between two places, it is less of a cop out or a disgrace to take a plane there next time, because you aren’t ‘skipping over’ places that might have stories and knowledge for you.. you aren’t half ass-ing part of the Earth’s tapestry.
- I don’t think it was intentional, but out of boredom and curiosity, I have learned a lot about the shipping industry, and the Philippians
- To let my the Carpal Tunnel in my right wrist heal. I have it from typing hours a day, and euphemistically, from being single for so fucking long!
- To get in shape and eat a healthier more consistent diet
- to obligate myself to sleep in one bed for a while, even if it is always moving at 20 knots
- in other words, to center myself, the way Alaska does, by isolation and stability, while still getting what I want, which is a chance to explore and learn about things I find exotic every day.
- To learn about weather, meteorology, and navigation, which might help make me a better pilot. Things happen on a boat at a much more processable speed.. it’s easier to learn here than on a plane.. you don’t have to fly and look around. You can just stare at the map for an hour while the watch office does that.
- To be in an all male environment for a while, my hope being that my reward might be some time in a very female environment once I get to Asia.
- I hate flying… from the indignity of taking off my shoes still some 9 years after Richard Reid, to the blast of carbon it creates, to the small indignities the corporate entities that handle you along the way heap upon you, to the intensity of it’s health impacts and psychological discombobulation that goes along with it, I try to avoid it whenever I can, and the alternates tend to be more rewarding.
- To learn about the nature and ecology of the Pacific, and to see some big storms… to see the Sea