Time: 1100
Date: March 14th, 2026
Latitude: 39° 06’ N
Longitude: 39° 40’W
Average speed last 24hrs: 6 kn
Distance to destination: 674 NM
Distance in the last 24h: 156 NM
Total distance this voyage: 1420 NM
Temperature: 20° C
Wind: 13 kn
Sailing status: On engine
Life buoy rescued in the last 24h: 1
Log keeper: Lin Xiao Hu (Tiger)
Yesterday was the day before dolphin day, and we packed and checked our sails because of the captain’s orders. We are going to be approaching the Azores, and there looks to be some storms. Last night during night watch, between 8-10 pm, watch 4 members saw many flares and signals in the sky on portside aft. We immediately took the course to head towards the flares, following procedures for this kind of event. During the 10-12 watch, we increased our lookouts and monitored flare activity, which persisted. During the 0-2 watch, after contacting all nearby vessels and coastal authorities, the captain called off our search because the mission had been assigned to a faster vessel. We resumed our course around midnight. This morning, it was also eventful, as we found a life buoy in the water. They took out the boat and got it out of the water. It was an old one with creatures living in its ropes, so unrelated to our search last night. Colours was at 11 today, this is good for sleeping. Anyways, all this was the summary update at Colours today, we got a good update from the Captain, but here is my perspective about last night.
I was in the Mess when I heard the news, and I thought that they might need my help, so I got dressed, grabbed my harness, and went up on deck. When I got there, they had a plan, and they told me not right now, because we still had a decent distance from where the flares were shot. After that, I’m sitting in the Mess feeling concerned about what was happening, like my peers, but we played some card games and tried to limit how much we were talking about it, because we were all confused and unsure. We wanted to avoid fears or rumors about the event. Sydnie and JP came off a long 3-hour lookout, and we spoke in the Mess. I got the information on what was happening, and I prepared myself for an important watch, not knowing what would come next. When we got to watch captain changed the order for the normal course, because we’d been searching at this point for nearly four hours. We arrived at the location, but we didn’t see anything: no flares, no VHF, no sounds, etc. With all authorities contacted and a massive effort on our part, this mission was no longer ours. As a Chinese sailor, we have the rules for saving: if any sailors see any other sailors under risk or crisis, it doesn’t matter what we are doing, our priority is to first save the people. The real things that make me want to do this are caused by multiple things. First, when I am under a crisis, like if I will one day be in a life raft, I wouldn’t want other people to see my signals of distress and just leave me be. Second, I also don’t know who is in the rescue boats, but I assume they are people with families, people like us; in front of nature, people are weak, humans need to be united to survive. Third, if we do everything we can, then we are not judged as if we are doing nothing. These reasons make it really a different feeling in comparing learning the events in real versus the learning I’ve been doing in my sail training book. When I really see the consequences of what could happen, and the procedures taking place in the event of a crisis, I am reminded that humans survive because humans help each other. About 50,000 years ago, people were living in tribes, and archeologists found broken and healed leg bones. In the old times, it was hard to cure, and if there was only one human in the wild nature, then he would die because of predators, but what we see is the healing of the leg bone. In the old times, people still helped each other in nature, many years ago. So, we keep this precious altruism in everybody’s heart. This precious quality is the thing that makes humans continuously have civilizations, and I’m very glad to see this precious quality in the people on this boat, in our community, in every single one of us. Wherever we are from, we choose to act in heart, the heart of sailors, we also follow altruistic values that are deep in our blood. The development of humankind counts on everyone here, on everyone’s hearts, on choosing to help each other and being good. These small powers will unite everyone eventually, and humans will keep continuing forward with this power of love. So, let’s just be the people that we want to be, and always remember this precious moment where we acted with courage and chose to act in helping others. To conclude, everyone needs to be united to solve every question we might have. We’re a community, and we need to work everything together. One finger hurts, five fingers fist.
From a normal Chinese sailor, Lin Xiao Hu (Tiger).
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