The clocks on this ship are well hidden. If you want the time, you would have to ask for it. That there is still light out at 11.30pm and that there is nothing but deep blue sea in every direction as far as the eye can see add to the timeless quality of our journey. We are a lonely little ship making our way across the ocean without any company save for the occasional albatross.
Suddenly, a line from Makoto Shinkai’s 5cm Per Second comes to mind:
… a journey so dark and lonely as to be beyond all imagination. To exist so earnestly in pure darkness without meeting even a single [soul] by chance… to absolutely and wholeheartedly believe that somewhere in the abyss you are getting closer to the secret of the universe…
Shinkai’s 5cm is a breathtakingly beautiful animated short movie, by the way. Take a look if you get the chance.
Random facts we learned today in lecture: a blue whale (the largest of whales) is the equivalent of 25 elephants in weight; its arteries are the size of drainpipes, and it can hold a whole football team on its tongue. A Wandering Albatross has a wingspan of 3 metres (10 feet), and flies 1,000 miles to hunt for food.
Nature finds a way.