Once the storm is over...

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” - Haruki Murakami

This quote from the book "Kafka on the Shore" from Haruki Murakami, captures many feelings and emotional states. We have been embarked for a week, but it seems we have been here for at least a month. Our storm had begun... literally. The wind has not stopped blowing in our search for eddies, to the point of having to hide inside our “igloo” through the night and wait for the storm to pass, like in the scene from the movie “Dersú Uzalá” by master Akiro Kurosawa. It tells the true story of a geographer – Vladimir Arsenyev – on his journey through the Siberian taiga. He meets a hunter (Dersú) who saves him from dying during a snowstorm by building a makeshift igloo. As in Murakami's book, the person who emerged after the storm was not the same person who entered it. The friendship that was born in that igloo between Vladimir and Dersú, nomad and animist, was a lesson in altruism that crossed the borders of time and space.

Our "storm" started a week ago, and now, in our igloo that is rocked by the sea, although we are not even sure that the strength of the storm has diminished, we begin to think that we are somewhat different from when we entered it. New bonds of friendship and confidences have been forged between exhausting shifts of rosettes, filtrations, chemical analyses, Snowcatchers, turbulence profilers… and biodramines. There are still three weeks left to understand the true meaning of the storm.

Searching for the meaning of the storm.

Pictures: Javier Arístegui