Pacific CASTAWAY

ROBINSON CRUSOE DREAMS BECAME REALITY FOR JOSHUA SHANKLE WHEN HE WAS MAROONED MID-PACIFIC

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‘Maybe it was cabin fever, but after 19 days at sea, I dove deep into the placid Pacific Ocean’

Immersed and weightless in the warmth of the endless blue, I looked down and could see only fathomless depths below me. Without a point of reference I couldn’t tell if I was two or 20 feet below the surface, the only difference to sense was the pressure of the vast ocean above me.

Maybe it was cabin fever after being becalmed for days on end that had driven me to do it. Perhaps I just couldn’t take the sound of the sails flogging and the blocks knocking one more time as our 42ft Tayana, Agápe, gently rolled back and forth on the ocean swell. But after 19 days at sea, without word or warning, I dove from the warm decks, plunging deep into the placid Pacific Ocean.

It was surreal to stare into the expanse of water and see no other life, only the silhouette of Agápe’s hull slowly drifting away. This far offshore the open ocean is equivalent to a marine desert, with little to eat and nowhere to hide. I can only imagine it’s the closest sensation I’ll ever experience to being in outer space.

DAY-DREAMING