The island had seemed so close, just a few
minutes away from us. But the sea could never be trusted in that region. The
weather changed in seconds and we were suddenly in the middle of gigantic waves
and the most terrible wind anyone had ever experienced. We were prepared
though; we had been doing calculations in order to properly avoid the
disastrous things that could happen in that sector of our journey. But one
thing is what you expect and one very different is the one that you get.
The storm was fierce and seemed almost
sentient, as if nature had no intention of letting us pass through. We were
close and also so very far from our target and it felt almost like cruelty
towards us that we were not being let to land on the island or to continue our
journey. We wanted to set foot there but if that wasn’t happening, we could
have scrapped it from our itinerary. But if we couldn’t pass to the other side,
if we couldn’t reach the other side of the continent, shame would befall us
back at home.
We had sailed several weeks ago, promising to
be successful. Many others had already done it in the past and we wouldn’t be breaking
records or anything like that, but our small town was one proud of its
seafaring history and we really wanted every single neighbor and friend to be
proud of us. Besides, we were still very young in comparison to most sailors,
so that was a thing we could play for the media, if we were successful. But
first we had to overcome nature and she wasn’t letting us do what we intended.
Wet and tired, still trying to make our yacht
change course every two minutes, I remembered training with the group for
months. Some did think we were idiots for attempting to do the journey, instead
of just going to college and get a degree on something useful. Small town
people don’t often care about dreams or things that are beyond themselves, they
just want young people to know their place fast in order to keep the order and
move along. They want some degree of tranquility and we weren’t there for it.
What we wanted was to make something in life
that would make us special or at least memorable. We all knew very well that
our lives would probably not amount to much. After all, we came from a lost
town in a place no one really cared about and we didn’t have money or fame to
make us different, because that’s what makes people stick out in this world. We
just wanted to do something that could make us proud in the future when we
would have boring jobs that don’t pay well or we get to form families that we
don’t really know how to envision from this young age.
It was hard to explain it to them and that’s
why we had to do everything by ourselves. The boat had been lent to us by a guy
who had actually circumnavigated the globe several times. He was really
interested in our story and came to help and train us. He even wanted to come
with us but his doctor forbid it because of his health problems. He never
really told us what was wrong with him but it was obvious it was quite serious.
After we trained, he would often seat alone for ours, just staring at something
in the horizon.
His training was rough. He made us do in a few
months what all sailors have to learn in years. He tried to make us understand
the passion that makes a sailor become in love with the ocean and he taught
about so many other things that relate to navigating, like the lives of marine
creatures and many legends that had been told to him on his journeys around the
world. It was amazing to listen to him and really feel that he loved what he
did. His passion made us feel that what we were about to do was not crazy or
stupid.
Our parents and other friends did tell us that
several times. Even journalists from small radio stations and television
channels that came the day we departed, asked us if we were insane to do what
we were going to do. And we all laughed and joked and just shrugged it off
because there was nothing that they could say that would derail us from doing
what we intended to do. It was already something that we had in our heads, deep
in there, and it couldn’t be moved, changed or destroyed. We had to do it.
Some were sad the day we left but not because
they felt regret but because they missed some of the guys and girls that had
decided not to go with us. Many did, almost half of the initial group to be
honest. But I think we understood where they were coming from, because it’s not
so easy to say that you’re leaving and don’t even know if you’re coming back.
Because the trip is not about us and our skills as sailors, it’s about the
world that we live in, the kind of people we may find and nature’s relentless
struggle to be all-powerful.
It was nice though, to feel the wind in one’s
hair and sniff the salty air all around. That first day and first night were
the pinnacle of many of our lives. We felt like adults, like really fully
adults, for the first time since we had graduated high school. We felt like men
and women capable of doing things that no one expected from us. Everything
around us and our senses told us that this had been the right idea all along.
We were right and we were going to prove to every single person in the world
that no one can be taken for granted for any reason. We had our chance to prove
them all wrong.
We stayed in that storm for two whole days.
Rations were beginning to go scarce but we had a good person managing that, in
order to resist for at least two more days. We were even thing about going back
to the last port and just try some other day, but going back also proved to be
very difficult. In every direction, waves were beginning to grow larger and
larger, the sky was always grey and the wind pushed the boat in the opposite
direction. It was almost impossible to be sane in such a situation.
We decided we couldn’t stop, we couldn’t just
give up. Pushing through was the only way we were going to move on to something
else. So we checked the equipment, we confirmed it on the outside and we
pressed on. The idea was to go through the storm and then head straight to the
nearest port in the coast. It would be a very small town, but that seemed
suitable for a group of people that came from a very similar place. Actually,
we were all looking forward to the kind of hospitality only given in such
places.
Everyone performed admirably, as if they had
done this all of their lives. They were all essential in make the boat go
through the toughest waves and pulls and pushes of the wind. We risked our
lives and we did feel death looming close by. But we couldn’t back down in that
moment. We had to push through once and again and again, until we could finally
rest and leave that horrible storm behind. For a moment there, it was almost
certain that we would die and it seemed we were ready for it, like never
before.
But nature suddenly seemed to feel kind and
generous. The waves started shrinking and the wind also calmed down a bit. A
hole through the clouds opened and we could see the sun, shining brightly over
our tired heads. And then, very close once again, we saw Horn island. It felt
so close again and we were tempted to try and land there but we decided against
it. We couldn’t let the storm trap us there. So we decided to salute the island
and move on up the coast, towards something more certain.
The people on the village we docked in were
extremely nice and friendly. They gave us food and even let us use their
washing machines for our laundry. We were going to sleep in the boat but they
also insisted we should all sleep in nice beds that night, so that’s what we
did.
We ended up staying there for four days, after
fixing some problems with our ride. Then, we said goodbye and moved on to the
next port. We would go north and then on to the open ocean again, to cross the
Pacific. We were still a long way from home and we were very thrilled about it.
