Stay Grounded and ponder, do fish have eyelids?

In February 2008, Kate Andrews, co-founder of Loco2 - the one stop site for train travel in Europe - took the bold decision to cross the Pacific Ocean on a 47-ft sailing boat. With no prior sailing experience and a motley crew of strangers, Kate set out Westward from Mexico, destination Australia.

This was the beginning of the second year of her 26-month round the world trip, which saw her visit an incredible 31 countries and travel 32,000 miles by land and sea. By cargo ship, bus, yacht and of course by train, Kate circumnavigated the world, taking just two short flights on this epic adventure.

The Pacific leg of her trip would last more than 120 days and would culminate in her jumping ship in Tonga. She found that blue water sailing was a bizarre mixture of the incredible and the mundane, which would eventually lead her to ponder life's big questions such as 'Do fish have eyelids?' This snippet joins her in one these moments of contemplation.

Living at sea for weeks on end gives you plenty of opportunity to get into deep thought about life, the universe, and everything. You’re far from the distractions of the Western world and can let your mind wander in a way that is impossible on land. I’ve spent many hours on the nightshift looking out at the vast expanse of black water, and relishing the absence of humans under a starlit sky. I’ve reflected on the joy of slow travel, and the enormity of our planet, but I’ve also realised that I don’t know if fish have eyelids.

The last few months have taught me that slow travel – and especially travel at 10 knots per hour – is in equal mundane and extraordinary. I’ve been lucky enough to shower in a rainstorm and sip a glass of champagne on the equator. But when it comes to the every day, life at sea can vary in its excitement. Some days you look out to sea and realise your own mortality, other days you clean the toilet. Luckily for us, the sea has kept us on our toes.

On a rough sea even life’s most ordinary activities can be a struggle. Something as seemingly simple as brushing your teeth, or taking a shower, becomes a display of acrobatics as the boat pitches against the waves beneath it. The result of this is a dance, nicknamed the Pacific Shuffle, which involves throwing your arms in the air, thrusting your hips and staggering around like a possessed Weeble (wobbling). Try as you might to feel the rhythm, or brace yourself against the ebb and flow, you are only delaying the inevitable. Without exception we have all fallen on our faces, bumped our heads and got toothpaste in our hair. In a storm few things remain banal.

When not doing battle with gravity, days spent at sea can vary in their excitement. You might spend a morning spotting dolphins from the deck and a night under a shower of shooting stars. Other days you may do nothing more exciting than baking a loaf of bread and scrubbing the deck. After all, a small yacht is much like a caravan, albeit more seaworthy than your average Winnebago. So while there is excitement, there is also boredom in the endless water. Sometimes it can lead you in contemplation, other times it is just a pleasure to watch the world go by. Incredible to think that this journey, that has taken me so many weeks is done by plane in a just few hours. For me this is the joy of slow travel, the delight of watching the horizon approach and the transition between places on different sides of the ocean. More than anything it has been an experience.

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Inspired to ditch the planes and find another way there? Check out the brilliant Loco2 for all the info and help you need to make your low carbon travel adventure a reality.

To read the rest of our Epic Flight Free Journeys, follow the series here.

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