It\u2019s always towards the end of a contract that you realize how fast the time has really gone. When I boarded my current ship in Papeete, Tahiti back in January, it seemed like the 3.5 months of my contract was stretching in front of me like an endless highway, winding off into the distance with our final destination far out of sight. There was plenty of time. Endless, bottomless wells of time<\/p>\n
But there isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Even more so than on land, where time flies quickly enough, on ships there really isn\u2019t. Time is a liquid thing here, a premium currency that \u2013 if it could be made solid \u2013 could be traded, bought and sold like stocks on the market.\u00a0 Time doesn\u2019t just fly when you\u2019re shipside; it vanishes, whipping away behind you before you have a chance to register its occurrence.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s Monday this must be Bora Bora\u2026.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s Tuesday this must be Dubai\u2026<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s Wednesday this must be Jordan\u2026<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s Thursday this must be the Med\u2026<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s Sunday this must be Athens\u2026<\/p>\n
And before you know it\u2026if it\u2019s April 26th<\/sup>\u2026that must be Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n Your life moves differently when you live below the waterline (or, for those lucky few who bear the stripes, above it), the ratio is said to be one ship-day = three land-days. We have conflicts of course, we have petty disagreements, personality clashes, break-ups, make-ups and catfights, but it all happens in the blink of an eye, because you simply don\u2019t have time to focus on those kinds of things. Relationships form, dissipate and reform with a speed that baffles the mind.<\/p>\n You think you know someone, only to turn around twice to find you don\u2019t know them at all. You think you know the woman in the mirror, only to find that you wake up one morning to see a different person looking back at you\u2026different, stronger, somehow changed, and wondering exactly what happened to the last \u2013 often incredible, often indescribable (sometimes bizarre and stressful) \u2013 three months of her life.<\/p>\n Never has the quote been more apt:<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the great theatre of life, admission is free, taxation is mortal, you come when you can, you leave when you must, the show is continuous. Goodnight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s always towards the end of a contract that you realize how fast the time has really gone. When I boarded my current ship in Papeete, Tahiti back in January, it seemed like the 3.5 months of my contract was … Continue reading