The sea, flat and calm from so many windless days, felt greased, and between strokes,

my rowboat carried on of its own accord, like gliding on ice.

This is Bernie Harborks.

Bernie is a veteran slow traveler.

He travels by donkey, by small boat, and he wrote this incredible essay about these weeks that he spent in the middle of the sea.

I was hung between the sea and sky,

suspended among blue shafts of sunlight

that bored into the inky abyss.

Now this was alone.

Because in 2003, Ernie was in the middle of a month's long sea expedition.

He was traveling from Cape Town South Africa to St. John Virgin Islands.

And 31 days after leaving Cape Town, he found himself in a place that most sailors are pretty desperate to avoid. The doldrums. It is officially known

as the intertropical convergence zone. But the doldrums refer to this place, this belt around the

earth near the equator where sailing ships just get stuck. They get stuck on these windless

waters.

It is one of the quietest places in the ocean.

This spot where just everything is totally still.

And I'll tell you, folks, it's a funny feeling being out here.

Look at this.

Water.

Water.

Water. Cloud clouds, sky.

...