Hopes and dreams

I miss the wind when it disappears, the clouds when the sun comes out and the sun when it rains. There is something to love every day and as soon as you take anything for granted, it will change the next day. I am continuously training ‘staying and appreciating the present’. I am not succeeding. Instead, I am doing it all at the same time. I find something to love every day, keep thinking about the great things of yesterday and dreaming about what I will do tomorrow.

Being close to the equator, it might come as no surprise that it is warm. Furthermore, we have so little wind that we started to think about swimming. There are rumors it might happen soon. But, as all good sailors know, one does not abandon the ship unless it is absolutely necessary or it is very safe. And so, we hope and we wait – wait for that perfect moment where we can safely enter the ocean. The moment where neither current or wind will make Europa move. It is a lot to ask, here out in the middle of the ocean, but it is called dreaming for a reason.

In the meantime, during these calm days, I could take out my ‘evolution game’ where the crew is being challenged to recreate the phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom. Where on the tree would you place the starfish, rainworms or octopuses? After some puzzling and discussing, we place all the different branches and talk about what characteristics can help identifying animals. What characteristics are shared and what set certain groups apart? For example, arthropods have an exoskeleton and grow through molting. Nematodes molt as well, and are indeed also close relatives of insects and crustaceans. We looked at the animals branching off early in evolution, like sponges, coral and jellyfish. And, of course, also select the groups we share a lot with like reptiles, amphibians, bony fish. Even though these groups seem very different, they do all have a skeleton of mineralised bones. Many discoveries were made (Corals are animals! Octopuses are molluscs!) and hopefully we will in the coming weeks find some of the groups we have spoken about.

So many hopes and dreams for what tomorrow will bring. I imagine the officers are mostly hoping for wind. But, with or without wind: with engines, air conditioners, water makers and plenty of food on board I know tomorrow will be a great day anyway.