I remember snowshoeing across Antarctica’s South Georgia Island and being amazed at the absolute barren landscape. You take away wildlife, plants, even rocks, and you are left with a monochromatic landscape as far as the eye can see. Miles and miles of white snow and nothing else. Where the snow ends the sky begins, and often during those Antarctic snow storms, you cannot discern the border that separates sky and land. You are engulfed in a blanket of white. And when this landscape is removed of all physical distractions, your empty meditative state now has space to notice and contemplate the subtle variations of a world we simply take for granted. Four years later after that life-changing trip to Antarctica, I feel the same sensation with sailing.
On these open water passages far far away from civilization, there is nothing but water and sky. Miles and miles of blue, except on this stormy day, I see nothing but miles and miles of gray. The water is gray, the sky is gray, the distant shoreline is gray, the far horizon is gray. Gee, if I had known this, I might have chosen a different decorating scheme, but alas, even Gémeaux is gray. So, with nothing other than this monochromatic landscape to ponder, I begin to notice that it’s not just gray. It’s a Crayola Crayon box of silver, dolphin gray, crystal, gray blue, alloy silver, manatee, sonic silver, white shimmer, deep space sparkle, and of course, gray. Wait, I see a red buoy…or rather a buoy with a crimson base and a glitzy claret top!
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