The Atlantic Ocean

Timezone: UTC-4.

The Christian fellowship group is such a wonder, with people from all walks of life and many different lands – though almost exclusively Anglophone. An incredible minisermon from an American gentleman (former foreign service employee in Poland) – as he gave it, a rainbow broke through the maritime landscape, clearly visible in the window right behind the homilist's back. A married couple who has been together for forty years. The gentleman says, “at this point we begin to think this may actually work out”. Another gentleman who concludes every meeting with a gut-busting joke. He once worked in his local police department, where wit is, apparently, how one would cope with the emotional strain. There he was the “humour guy”.

Lunch with the American couple with a diplomatic past in Poland. Very agreeable people, I was keen to learn about their Polish and global experiences, as well as discuss American and European politics.

Another Irish concert, with powerful conversations at the table. One of the last before New York City, but I look forward to returning to this constant of my maritime life as I reboard the ship in California.

Due to the weather conditions the ship has been exposed to, and the ensuing detour, we will arrive in New York City a day later than planned. From all the wobbliness aboard, I wonder if I will be able to stand firmly on the ground ashore.

The North Atlantic is the most dangerous ocean in the world. It is also the most heavily traveled; the sea lanes connecting Europe and North America carry more people and goods than all other oceans of the world combined.
[…]
All year round, there is fog. The North Atlantic is famous for it. Off the Grand Banks, where the Labrador Current chills the vapor-laden air above the Gulf Stream, it is almost perpetual, an opaque mist that can shroud the sea for days on end. Ship captains hate it more than any other single danger they face.
So frightful was this Western Ocean that for hundred of years, sailors never ventured onto it. There was no reason to do so and a very good reason not to: legend had it that the known world ended just over the horizon and any ship unfortunate enough to sail in that direction risked toppling into an abyss.
John Maxtone-Graham, “The Only Way to Cross”