Programs Blog

27 August 2025

Location (Lat and Long): 35 09’N, 148 24’W

Ship Heading: 020

Ship Speed: Motoring at 7.5 knots

Log (nm): 1250nm

Weather/Wind/Sail Plan: Wind S by W force 2, seas S 3ft, motosailing under two stays’ls

How many different combinations one can concoct from the four seemingly simple components – water, air, wind and light? Every day at sea brings new cocktail with unique flavor that never repeats itself: one night you are at the quiet calm glassy cathedral with starry dome above in an almost religious awe, the other you are transported into Vivaldian storm with lightning and thunder nearby, then ocean rolls out beautiful silky silver carpet for her majesty drama queen the moon and her loyal companion Jupiter. As we shifted our watch time from midnight to dawn/sunset time – A watch had a chance for the very first time to witness a full glory of the sunrise this morning, after being at sea for almost 10 days – it was very memorable. Counterintuitively, the first telltales of dawn appear not in the area where you would expect the sun to rise, but in the opposite side of the sky cupola. You would start seeing this gentlest pink hue first on the horizon followed by the yellow peach spreading above it and purple-blue below all shaded into one another like warm sfumato on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings.

It’s a form of liberation not checking newsfeed every half an hour and being stressed about the inevitable “loom of the doom” of our civilization, or reading emails and distracting text messages that are not adding substance to your life. I like my mindset at sea – it becomes more pensive, reflective, slows down so that you can notice small things you rarely notice in life, especially in the big city, like the way clouds are formed today for example. This slowing down of pace of life at sea helps you to put everything in perspective and realize that too many things that get your daily attention on mainland…are maybe not that important after all.

What I do miss is unwinding with kids in the evening watching some cool movie together, so while being on watch I collected a little “movie-reference moments”, which may give ideas of what to re-watch, while I am away: the very first calm night (it was on day three after sea-sickness let me finally go) the ocean was so calm and sky pristinely clear that it made me feel like a character of the Truman Show – too perfect, like any moment now your bowsprit will poke the paper decoration. When we were swimming in the middle of the ocean with 5800+ meters below us and sun sending rays of light down below, I was thinking about Miazaki’s undersea world – what kind of wonders are down below? And of course, standing on lookout with one leg on the rail you feel a little bit like Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of Caribbean 🙂 For now my main evening entertaining besides sunset is a bioluminescence TV – million bright starts of the night ocean coming off the spume as our hull slices ocean waves.

Pro-tips: A note to future sailors – bring your song book with lyrics with you to sea! Otherwise you’ll be standing at lookout desperately wanting to sing and forgetting every other word:/ Also, I should have bought that book of Complete Haiku by Matsuo Basho at San Diego’s bookstore for the trip even though it was hefty! I feel like any form of poetry, particularly haiku, can be a very good choice of literature for long voyages at sea.

P.S.To Martin and Sonik-slonik: last night on lookout around sunset I saw this cloud that looked like an elephant with the curved trunk and the new thin moon was right at the place of an elephant tusk! I wish I could snap a picture for you two, but my cell phone was at my bunk and I didn’t want to abandon my duty – just imagine it in your head!

P.S.S. To muzhzhzh – crossing oceans is easy, try to stay home with two kids at the beginning of school year while working fulltime – thank you for your support!!!

With love,

Irina

Irina Sagalovskiy, Deckhand, A watch