Reflections. The Pacific Ocean

Prison? Student Halls? Isolation Unit?  Man I am confused.  Either way, feels like the big man has popped me on the naughty step to think about what I have done. For someone who used to panic in search for entertainment if the next train on the London Underground was over 3 minutes away, sticking me on a ship for two and half weeks smells to me to like one social experiment too far. I do however only have myself to blame and I dragged poor Amy into it.  We have almost done a month on ships now, crossing both the Tasman and Pacific, and I would love to report that though meeting my mind head on has been difficult, it is certainty something everybody should do.

With no internet connection to speak off, the amount of FTFE admin that could be done soon dried up but I did have one job that would smash hours out of a day. I needed to properly catalogue the video footage shot from the last 6 months for Audrey our producer. Hundreds of videos from London to New Zealand. Though tedious at times, a great task as it reminded me of every day on this adventure. Much of it has been knocked from my head from exhaustion. My favourite videos are the raw footage when the camera was randomly rolling in the back of the cab capturing pointless chat amongst the crew. These are the moments I will miss.

Living on the ship has given us time to do those little things you simply don’t have time to do back in the real world. “Today I will draw” announces a very excited Amy. You go for it sailor, I am going to spend the day kicking through some history (we have brought reference books onboard). No guilty feeling you should be dong something or being somewhere. I feel like a snooze, bing bong bash, a snooze I will have. The complete opposite to life on the fire engine.

When the wind isn’t blowing too hard, the ultimate afternoon treat was shooting some hoops on the deck. I spent much of my teens spending hour after hour playing basketball so having a hoop on the ship was a dream. There is something very therapeutic about spending hour after hour playing BBall but a little bit more tricky on a ship in the middle of the Pacific. When the wind blew, every shot was particularly tricky, as a split second before each shot a quick calculation of wind and which way the boat was rocking was needed. After dinner a few of the crew got involved for some 3 on 3 action, a proper sweat on. Lovely stuff.

Righty, I am off for a snooze.

Steve

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