Marquesas!

The experience of sailing across the Pacific has been, predictably,
exactly what I expected and totally different
the days are not endless, nor really repeated
each has felt unique even though they blur together
they also go by so quickly
moments of boredom have been brief 
and moments of claustrophobia which would seem normal
have not occurred 
I don’t want “off” of Allora 
I don’t yearn to walk on land
(other than to pee without thinking about my balance)
I don’t actually yearn to see land or even green, I don’t think
though, that may change when it happens
I think I will appreciate quiet and a sense of relative motionlessness
for a bit
this would have been incredibly hard without our crew
The things we worried about, as a family stuck together on a little boat
have been so much less than expected
tiny spats that lead to good resolutions
perhaps even especially for Diana and I
our big, big blow up on day four or whatever it was
resolved, or at least reframed, months of simmering issues
the challenges are still there as they probably always will be
but rebutting them with love and affection 
has reminded us of what we have made over twenty-seven years
a formidable partnership
having Haley Maddi and Wyatt here was by far and above all 
the best thing about this crossing
~MS

People have sailed into these remote places for ages
when it was a much more dangerous and difficult thing to do
no guardian angel satellites watching over with pin point accuracy
no buzz of data vibrating in the invisible electromagnetic spectrum 
They came for whale oil and gold.
It’s hardest to understand how the captains found their sailors
willing to fall off the end of the earth
What were they promised?
Whalers raided the Marquesas for women
stories of rape they did not share back in New Bedford
with their pious wives hiding wooden dildos in the walls
the food the rot the stink 
there must not have been many better choices
the brutal life of a common sailor
~MS

Marquesan Magic from Stevens on Vimeo.