Numb

Often in the winter, we become tired of the cold. After the last 10 days working on a ship in the North Atlantic, I'm tired from the cold.

I want to fall asleep at 6pm sitting upright in a chair, fatigued from another long day outside in the wind and temperatures hovering in the single digits. The only water I crave is steaming from the kettle, and even then I drink it quickly in the first 20 minutes of watch, or else it too threatens to solidify. Ice is now collecting on the ladders and brazenly creeping out from beneath the morning shadows. Salt is applied to the deck just as every bite of every meal is doused in hot-sauce. We do all we can to keep it from us - its stinging fingers from our skin. And still I grow tired. Relief is fleeting. The icy wind awaits.