Clarity.
[This post was written on our 30-day crossing of the Atlantic Ocean]
Back in the days when I would traipse about my luxurious Toronto apartment with modern amenities such as flush toilets, a washing machine and a refridgerator, I would try to imagine what life would be like on a tallship. “Why, even using the little girls’ room would change dramatically!” I thought. Well, I was thinking like a pansy. Things are different, but the same. I’ve gone camping plenty of times in my life – I’ve used outhouses. Ship’s bathroooms are for royalty, compared to outhouses. If you need to whiz in the middle of the night, you climb out of your bunk, feel your way through the dark and do your business. No rocket science, no fuss, nothing ca-rayyyy-zy.
I used to also try and imagine what it would feel like to be in the middle of the ocean with nothing else around for hundreds of miles. I assumed that I would have moments of awe, one of those instances when you realize how small you are and how massive the universe is. As it turns out, so far it’s kind of the opposite. At all points of the day, we’re surrounded by a perfect 360 of ocean and sky, so to me it creates a dome effect; you can actually see the curvature of the earth. It feels like we’re in a gargantuan snow globe, and the Picton Castle is the centre of that world. At times I could see it even feeling claustrophobic, if that kind of thing bothered me.
It’s weird though, because for my entire life I’ve been surrounded by a constant buzz of changing landscapes and peripherals that influence the way my brain works. When we’re at sea, there are no passing people, buildings, billboards or vehicles. Until we reach land, it’s the same ocean and the same sky (with shifting weather conditions, of course). The only thing my brain has to focus on is this microcosm of a world on the ship: what I’m learning, the work we’re doing and the community of people I’ve met. It makes life so simple. Take away the constant barrage of distractions in every day life and you’re left with a simplicity that is exactly what I was hoping to find on this voyage.