Tori Murden’s “Letters From
The Edge”
Electronic Chronicle is a Sea of Thoughts and Observations
For
the last two months, Tori Murden has faithfully reported on her activities,
habits and observations while rowing the Atlantic ocean.
Her journal, accessed on Tori’s web site at www.adept.net/americanpearl,
includes writings on her life at sea, at home, her dreams and even a essay on
the merits of solar power. Here are
some excerpts. September
18 I
have my first injury to report, apart from the blisters that are so inevitable
as to hardly merit mention. I
gashed open my little toe. You see,
this is what happens when Tori Murden goes barefoot.
It is well known that I am a woman of hard eyes and tender feet.
My mother thinks this a serious failing (the tender feet, not the hard
eyes). She believes that anyone
raised South of the Mason-Dixon line should relish running barefoot across
gravel. To think that she could
raise a child with such tender feet would be as if to admit that I suffered from
some unmentionable social disease. Apart from my bleeding all over the boat there is no cause
for alarm. S I
rose just before dawn and was hard pressed to get everything done in time to be
at the oars before the sun peaked over the horizon. I barely made it. The
punishment for missing this deadline is no Sweet-Tarts, M&M’s or cashews
for the day. October 2 This
morning, a very amusing scene disturbed my third hour of rowing.
I was cruising along minding my own business when a squadron of flying
fish landed aboard. One hit my hat,
another my shoulder, and three more landed on deck.
I explained to my visitors that this is no aircraft carrier and that they
would have to leave. It was no easy task catching five fish and tossing them
overboard before they suffocated on my deck.
I could have fried them up for dinner, but they were very small and I am
definitely in a “live and let live” mode out here. October 16 Dane Clark, a meteorologist friend, reported seeing “African dust” in the satellite imagery. It occurred to me that the hazy clouds I took to be light brown stratus clouds might in fact be the African dust Dane observed. I thought about this for a long time. This dust will accumulate water as it crosses the ocean. As the dust gathers moisture it may be carried high and become cirrus clouds. Perhaps in a few weeks a large black cumulonimbus cloud will deposit some of this African dust over a Kansas corn field. For a moment, I wanted to be that dust. I wanted to catch a cloud and take a short cut home. That
dust cloud is amazing. It is not so
absurd, wanting to soar with the clouds. I
am little more than lucid dust. How
many billions of humans existed before me? Some of their atoms may be in that cloud.
Who am I to complain about my situation?
I have food and shelter and clothing.
There are now six billion living breathing human beings on the planet.
I’d say I’m in a better position than about 95 percent of them. #
# # November
1999 Press Office Julie Wellik, Kevin Plagman and Dana
Ziegler Communications West
Telephone 415.863.7220
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