THE most notable about time in an ocean voyage is that it is so purely relative. While fragment is in space, a moment is in time. We sailed in the lightness on an early fall evening: the sky fresh, the sea quiet and calm. The ship ploughed into open seas, a shade of vivid indigo as the horizon narrowed and widened, dipped and rose. The moon was illuminating the deck with its whiteness. Like a distant voice, the sea hushed, almost to a sigh, in a rhythmic exhalation as though it were asleep outside the gate of sound. Oh, the elegance of nature, the wonder of space and fragrance of the ocean!
It was a Sunday night and everywhere there were people who came in long rows, some of them singing their heads already feeling light after a few drinks. Tequila and beer were flowing
You’re on the water and you’re seasick. The waves rocking you in their hammock back and forth up and down. At first, it was a sweet cradling motion — until you start feeling like you have a hangover as big as Mount Everest.
You tried pure will power, convincing yourself “I wont get sea sick.” But nothing helped as your inside turned round and round, losing all your sense of balance, flooding all your senses. Nothing worked, as the sea made sport of you, without any right in their making. Mark that as you first evening, meant to start with unadulterated fun
Still, there is nothing like a good cruise as it provides entertainment, solace, humor; a respite from the hurry-scurry of the everyday routine. However, the element of surprise is you meet a person of the moment, who live for the moment; but the effect is cumulative, minor characters and minor entertainment little pathos.
Who knows romance if is in the air? There will always be opportunities and the importance of a moment a single event or connection. It teems with indigenous life, in a pace of living that is accumulated. You see life as a server of swift impressions rather than a coherent whole. Life seems richer, without its breadth and depth you see it multiplying with little impressions.
You walk and settle on a chair around the deck and reflect for a moment. An excruciatingly handsome face flash by and you’re “crushed” for a moment. Someone jostled you, and you’re angry for a moment; then someone smiles at you, and you’re glad for a moment. Such are the daily feelings inside a ship, unlike the lingering precious, ductile feeling in your routine.
A cruise provides a sure “escape.” There’s freshness, spontaneity and surprise. The very soul of a cruise are slices of life that do not make life itself. The bits and color put together that do not make pictures, or a dissonance make music — just spectacular meanderings that have been briefly glimpsed. Since there has no beginning or end, simply viewing of life in passing could be grand or drab to grab.
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