This Too Shall Pass
Day 16 : Ascension Island to Azores
Saturday, April 2nd 2022
Day 16: Ascension Island to Azores
Whenever times are tough, on passage or in life in general, I think of my mother’s wise words: “This too shall pass”.
It’s a mantra that can help you get through almost anything – pain is temporary, and the universe has a way of restoring balance and harmony. So all you need to do is grit your teeth and hang on, because as sure as night follows day, so this too shall pass.
For much of my life, I thought that this was just a saying of MY mother’s.
It’s a forgivable mistake – she’s an amazing woman, with what seems like an inexhaustible supply of energy, drive, passion and caring. No matter what challenges she’s facing, or (most often) helping others to face, nothing seems to crush her indomitable spirit.
So I just naturally assumed when she told me these words that they were the product of her own lifetime of grit and determination. Even the slightly unusual grammar, with the placement of the word ”too” in the sentence, seemed idiosyncratic and likely to be a personal quirk.
But a random google search a year or two back revealed this phrase to be well known, and no doubt the wise words of mothers the world over for generations.
No matter, the phrase loses none of its power when revealed to be shared and followed by many. In fact, in my experience the more it’s shared, the more power it gains.
I’ve found myself meeting quite a few brand-new cruisers over the last 2 or 3 years – often cruising couples just embarking on their own adventure. And sometimes one catches the spectre of fear in the words or general demeanour of at least one half of the couple. It’s not hard to empathise, to remember the not so distant past when we too had no idea whether we could “do this”, of whether we could cope in the face of a tremendous storm, or systems failure in remote places.
And when the moment has felt appropriate, I’ve found myself often sharing my mother’s words to the fresh-eyed, but slightly nervous, soon-to-be circumnavigator.
“Just remember”, I’ll say. “If you find yourself terribly seasick, or caught in a storm, and feeling as wretched as you’ve ever felt, just remember, ‘This too shall pass’”.
And I’ve discovered that every time I find myself sharing this notion, it seems to reinforce my own conviction about its inalienable truth, making me just that little bit more able to face the prospect of daunting challenges in my own life.
It turns out that the phrase doesn’t just help in the moment. It makes you more comfortable putting yourself into situations where you might expect to experience those moments too.
It gave me the confidence to tackle challenges like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro last year, when I had absolutely no business attempting that feat based on our levels of general fitness and lack of training. I went into that knowing that there would be times that it would be incredibly tough. There would be times when I might want to give up (40% of all climbers of that mountain quit). And there would be times where I would hate Jen for taking inspiration from HER mother and suggesting we tackle the mountain in the first place.
But I knew in advance, not matter how bad it got, that “this too shall pass”.
So as we sat in Ascension Island 3 weeks ago planning this passage, and it really sank in that we were about to embark on a journey that would include a minimum of 14 days (and possibly up to 21 days) straight beating, I gulped.
There’s a reason why so few boats ever tackle this, preferring instead to have two much longer downwind passages, from the South Atlantic to the Caribbean, and then the Caribbean across the North Atlantic, rather than just go straight up the middle like a crazy person. It’s tough. Damn tough.
But I knew it wasn’t impossible. The sailors’ bible for ocean passages (Jimmy Cornell) said so. And we know of other boats doing it.
It could be done. And no matter how bad it felt in the moment, we both knew that “This too shall pass”.
And so we carried on with the passage planning, and prepared ourselves mentally for the rigours ahead.
And there’s a funny thing about jumping into challenges that you think are going to be tough. The better you prepare for them mentally, the less likely they are to actually be as bad as you thought they were going to be.
And so it’s turned out so far on this passage. This is our 7th consecutive day of being hard on the wind. We’ve deliberately sailed slower than normal, setting the boat up for comfort rather than speed. And the days are just steadily ticking by.
There have been a couple of days of bigger waves, when although things were not THAT bad, we did find ourselves thinking, and telling each other, that “this is NOT fun” several times per day. But those moments did indeed pass. And the vast majority of it has been just fine.
With some impending bad weather ahead, we’re seriously considering diverting to Cape Verde for a few days to let it pass (decision tomorrow), so if that happens, our 14-21 days of non-stop upwind sailing will be split into two, making it that much easier than we’d feared also.
One’s own imagination is often so much worse than the reality. Armed with THAT knowledge, and my mother’s mantra, has given me the confidence to tackle pretty much anything in life.
And so for that, and so much more, I have an enormous amount to be thankful to my Mum for.
Day 16 Statistics:
Time on passage so far: 15 days, 21 hours
Distance covered in last 24 hours: 105 nm
Average Speed in last 24 hours: 4.4 knots
Official Length of intended Route when we set out: 3,480 nm
Current Projected Distance to Go according to chart plotter: 1,541 (1,634) nm
Distance Sailed so Far: 1,873 nm
Total Projected Distance of Route: (1,873 + 1,541) 3,414 nm
Change in total projected distance in last 24 hours: +12 miles.
Number of times I’ve found myself invoking the “This too shall pass” mantra on this passage: 0 (it really hasn’t been as bad as I feared, and so I’ve been saving the mantra up in case we get really rough weather further down the track).
