[Florence is now behind me. I’ve returned to writing on a Swiss train rushing towards Lucerne, after a short stay in Como.]

Time spent on the water moves differently. I don’t think this is metaphorical; as your body adjusts to the rocking of the boat, I think that your internal rhythm adjusts as well, breaking time up into different base units. The worn out description of days passing slowly but weeks rushing by holds true.I spend my time exploring the ports and cities we dock in, or practicing nautical knots M has taught me.

This practice isn’t just a way to keep my idle hands busy; the gentle lull of uneventful routine is spiked with brief but high-pressure intensity whenever we need to dock or sail away; the wind can change in an instant, demanding everyone spring into action, pull ropes, stretch sails, change course. It’s during these bouts of intensity that fluent ropemanship becomes indispensable. M has gifted me a small chord which I constantly twist into shapes, doing and undoing eight knots, flat knots, bowlines. Practice does make perfect, and, much like learning a new musical instrument, movements which were at first awkward, thought-out and clumsy, soon begin to flow into an effortless, absent-minded dance of the fingers. I often think about playing the banjo as I play with my rope.

Being able to tie the right knot quickly and effortlessly proves to be a very useful skill more than once, in several tense docking situations we find ourselves in. Generally speaking, I feel my movements and my body are becoming more graceful and adapted to the motion and shape of the boat as we continue to progress west. My bewilderment in docking procedures and sailing mechanics is slowly replaced by understanding, and then anticipation.

By the time we reach Rhodes, I’m proficient enough to debate approaches, distances and rope tautness with M, offering alternatives and suggestions which he often embraces. But before we can talk about Rhodes, we need to talk about Kastellorizo.

I’ve written a post covering my impressions of the island – but I haven’t really discussed the storm, and the long layover we had to make as we weathered it. More on this in the next post, where I’ll talk about storms, pirates and sashimi.