"Sailing is long periods of boredom punctuated by short bursts of extreme terror." I've heard this quote a few times now, and although I don't necessarily agree (I would swap out the word 'boredom' with 'calm' and 'terror' with...'activity,' which often incites excitement, sometimes stress, and not very often but definitely possibly terror), the quote (variation) is pretty spot on for other aspects of our lives as well, not just sailing. The past few days at Socorro have been long periods of calm (i.e., reading lots of books, cooking, watching movies, writing, cleaning, practicing yoga, playing chess, etc.) punctuated by short bursts of extreme activity (i.e., going full-throttle in the dinghy to explore as much of the coast as we can; paddleboarding as fast as we can to try to catch up to nearby whales and get a glimpse of them underwater; snorkeling and freediving towards white-tipped reef sharks and sea turtles and away from the much larger, sinister manifestations of our fears; swimming and singing in thunderous sea caves of unknown depths; etc.).

I've even come to realize the quotes relatability in our animal encounters. Encounters with marine animals are different than other animals, because although we live on the same planet, we live in two very, very different worlds. I find I hardly ever look out into the ocean with the expectation of actually seeing an animal. It's long periods of looking out that eventually dissolve into either following a train of thought, or focusing my attention on something else. But, every lucky once in a while, the outward looks are punctuated by short bursts of flying fish that actually fly(!), giant tuna leaping miles out of the water, bouncing dolphin dorsal fins and skimming shark dorsal fins, flapping giant manta ray wings, and the literal breathtaking glimpses of whales and their tails before they dive back down to the depths, bringing another long period of calmly waiting--sometimes upwards of 20 minutes--before we're graced with another short burst of what could only be described as pure beauty.