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November 26th, 2009 – At Sea, 02 52N, 044 48W
by Herb McCormick
Before Ocean Watch became Ocean Watch, she was the combined live-aboard home and research laboratory of marine biologists Pat and Steve Strand, ranging about the Sea of Cortez and serving dual duties as a cruising boat and work station. In that previous incarnation, the name on her transom was Danzante, and I bring that up today because as Ocean Watch has plunged south into the steamy waters bordering the Equator, we’ve come to call the galley, main cabin and sleeping quarters – in fact, the entire below-decks accommodation plan – by a new nickname: Danzante’s Inferno.
To those who’ve sent notes admonishing me to lay off explaining in sultry detail just how warm it is these days – who rightfully say there are people with bigger problems in the world, so just clam up and get on with it – I say: I hear you. I’m even sorry. But I can’t leave it alone. Ocean Watch has become a sauna, a steam bath, a sweat lodge. Danzante’s Inferno is some stinking hot.
On this day, however, if only briefly, I will put aside my complaints, and not because it isn’t warmer than ever, because it is. But wafting from our tiny seaboard kitchen today are the most wondrous smells imaginable, and they’re making the tiny droplets running down my forearms and forehead more than tolerable. That’s because, along with everything else, there’s a gentle rumbling in my tummy, too. And that’s because there’s a turkey in the oven, and it smells wonderful.
Yes, even on the Equator, at least our part of it, it’s Thanksgiving, and for almost all of us, it’s the first time we’ve been at sea for a major holiday. It’s actually pretty weird. Most of the crew of Ocean Watch considers Turkey Day the best of all the holidays, a time of celebration before the over-commercialized dash towards the Yule, and we’re all suffering through various stages of withdrawal. It’s snowing in Iowa, notes David Thoreson. There’ll be no raking of leaves this year, says Dave Logan. Skipper Mark Schrader is lamenting the absence of the huge, traditional spread he always throws in his shop for everyone the day before Thanksgiving. The rituals are different this year.
We’re missing the snap in the air, the quiet streets, the relaxed pace of the day, the knocks on the door. We’re missing the football, the high school games in the morning; the hapless Detroit Lions taking their annual licking; and the insufferable Dallas Cowboys preening around their palatial new stadium. For lack of a better metaphor, today the crew of Ocean Watch resembles the pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, bound for the “new” world (new only to them, of course, and not, you know, the countless nations, tribes, nomads, natives and communities that had already been there forever).
For us, like those hopeful voyagers, also on the way to places we’ve never been before, this Thanksgiving will be all sailing, all the time.
So, yes, we’re missing a few things this year, but nothing more than our friends and families. On this day of Thanksgiving, we have plenty to be thankful for, and the people who’ve sacrificed so much in so many ways, on our behalf, are at the very top of the list.
We’re reminded of the Mayflower in another sense, and we sincerely hope we’re not too presumptuous when we say we’re on a pilgrimage of sorts ourselves, a voyage of discovery that’s been a wondrous ride so far: part adventure, part journey, part science, part education, but all illuminating. We can only say thanks for all that, and “thanks” seems terribly inadequate.
Beyond our immediate family, this entire crazy escapade has brought together a grander family, the Around the Americas family, and had not every member of that clan pulled together in some very significant way, this ambitious, nutty, wonderful expedition would be no more than a funny idea a bunch of guys had that, sadly, never came to fruition.
You all know who you are: our sponsors, partners, shore team, port hosts; our media team, who’ve done such a fantastic job, and all the journalists who’ve felt our story was important enough to pass along; all the people we’ve met along the way, who’ve attended our shows and lectures, taken us into their homes, told us their tales, made us understand what is taking place all around us; the scientists who work tirelessly in the background, who’ve taught us so many things and added such legitimacy and value to our mission; the committed teachers who’ve brought us into their classrooms; and especially, the kids who’ve come to hear us speak, who’ve asked such meaningful questions, who are, after all, the future for us all.
Thanks. Thank. You. For heaven’s sake, thank you.
When skipper Mark Schrader invited me to join this family, I said yes almost immediately. Like everyone else on the crew, I’ve devoted a large portion of my life to sailing and the sea, and like most anyone who’s followed a similar path – whether a fisherman, serviceman, oceanographer, surfer, paddler, diver, cruiser, racer, swimmer, beachcomber, and on and on – I’ve discovered the returns on that investment are totally incalculable. The Around the Americas voyage seemed like a small way, a mere gesture, perhaps, to give something back to the sport, the seas, the very pastime and calling that’s meant so much to me all my life. I know everyone on this crew, in this family, feels the same way.
But a funny thing happened on our well-intentioned path towards giving something back. Instead, we’ve been the ones who keep receiving gifts, in countless ways, from countless individuals. Irony of ironies: The would-be givers continue, alas, to be the lucky recipients.
So today, especially, from our little dot on the grand ocean, it would seem the most appropriate thing we’ve got to give, quite simply, is our thanks.
- Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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