birthday cake and boat rhythms

somewhere off the coast of Japan - April 2, 2024

Hi friends! I’m alive and out of my seasick daze.

We left China six days ago and since then I’ve been trying to settle back into the rhythm of the boat. Sleep, eat, find your balance, lose your phone, dive back into a book, wrangle camera gear, shoot, edit, get nauseous and repeat. A lot goes on in such a small space. Although it’s never the easiest adjustment, I have to admit it is nice to get back into the routine and pace of life on board. Especially after a short stopover in another new city. I get twice the amount of sleep I do on land and if I work efficiently, I have all the time in the world to read. I may be working most of the time out here, but I really do get excited to soak up the days I have, removed from daily distractions like social media and text messages and everything else that grabs my attention. On days like today, when it’s smooth sailing and I’ve got my task list done for the day, I wonder if thirty days at sea is enough time to truly slow down. I find myself wanting to make the most of this time detached. Possibly because it’s so easy for me to use external sources as a way of numbing the discomfort in my life. I know I have a lot to learn from this discomfort and luckily that’s exactly where I’ll be residing this month. Right in the middle of it. When will I be crossing the largest body of water on earth again? Probably never so I may as well attempt to be present, learn something and hopefully discover that I have the ability to find myself at peace amidst the chaos of it all.

(When the inevitable happens and the weather fills in and everything becomes a challenge again, I might be thinking very differently)

A life update is that I turned 26 the day we started this North Pacific crossing. My new crewmates baked me a cute little birthday cake that I got to enjoy before nausea took over and the back of the boat became my home. A birthday to remember. We’re now over 1,000 miles into a 6,000 mile race and have done our fair share of tricky navigation through fishing vessels, finding wind holes and eating meals I hope to never consume again after this experience. Yesterday we rounded the southern tip of Japan to start moving towards the open ocean which means we’ve got to enjoy the warmth and sunshine while it lasts. Oh and I keep forgetting to include the race tracker link on these blogs but if you’d like to see where I am at any given moment this month while sailing across this massive body of water you, can find me here: https:// www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/standings

I’m sailing with/documenting team UNICEF this race :)

Okay, I'm off to eat lunch now and spend the rest of my afternoon reading on deck while the weather permits.
- meredith rodgers