“Now that’s my man” we sometimes say when the other person does something we recognize. We’d rather not see too many folly. No, we very much want to know what we are up against, that is called certainty. This is important because uncertainty eats holes in our existence. Yet this existence only knows just one certainty: as soon as man is born unavoidably there will be death. 

The finiteness of our earthly existence confronts me with my own role in it all. That role is so small that the value of it seems to disappear in greater whole of it all. But then I recall that I too am a part of this greater whole. They can not do without me, everything runs differently when I am not there. That does not mean that I am indispensable, but it will not be the same. A grain of sand is very tiny but it can make all of the clockwork grind to a halt. 

Everyone, permanent or voyage crew, skipper or mate, we all are part of the adventure we started when we sailed out of Scheveningen. I wish that by the end of our time together we will say: “Now that’s my man!” Human in all your imperfection, wherever that may show. A human being in an endless supply of love I feel for you.