Women & the Wind (2025) Movie Script
1
[Kiana] I had been feeling
very lost in absolute freedom.
Not having any
responsibilities besides this boat,
not having anything to do.
So when Lrke told me
that she wanted to go sailing,
I got really excited about
the possibility of a project.
I knew I wanted to do a
project that was not about me.
It was not necessarily about the boat,
it was not necessarily about
how we sail or whatever,
but I wanted it to include other people.
I've always lived my life in such a way
that when I feel something exciting,
I chase after it and keep
doing it and keep talking about it
as if it's going to happen,
whether I know it is or not.
[Aliz]
That's how you sail?!
- Yeah.
It just seemed very cool
to join the idea of women
sailing across the North Atlantic,
which not many people do in general,
it's not the choice trip
because it's rough.
And the boat being so rustic and simple
in its capabilities to sail
across, it's interesting.
Mara Noka is a James Wharram design.
NARAI Mark one,
built in 1971 through 74.
It's based off of the Rongo,
which was James Wharrams second boat
that he built to cross the North Atlantic
west to east for the first time ever.
Nobody had done that on a catamaran before.
I found Mara Noka in Panama.
I did not know how to sail
at all when I got the boat,
I did not know how to pull up the mainsail.
I understood wind,
but when I started sailing,
it really felt like the
boat was sailing me.
After one week of sailing constantly
for the first time,
I started to know the noises
and that was such an
interesting experience.
I dont know, you create like
a symbiosis with this vessel.
Through that first year of sailing,
it was really, really rough all the time
to watch the boat get loose
and feeling this sense of debt to the boat.
I could feel that it was in pain sometimes,
but still enjoyed what it was doing.
Theres just such a
special connection with it.
It felt like it was excited for
new adventures.
[Lrke] When I lived in my
hometown, I would go often down
and just sit by the water and look out.
And even though it was a bay,
you couldn't see land on the other side,
and I've always just found a lot of
peace in looking at the ocean,
because it's like a blank canvas and
you can just look out and
anything seems possible.
I've always wanted to
sail on a long journey since I was a child,
and I remember these books
from this sailor family in Denmark that
my parents would read to me,
and there was one about one of the kids
going on this big journey,
and they were in the Caribbean, and
they met all these animals.
Like seeing dolphins and turtles,
and it's just been in
my head for a long time,
and then I just started to tell people that
I was going across the Atlantic,
and then sometimes I create my own reality
by just repeating stuff,
and then that was what I wanted to do.
[Kiana]
Eventually
figured it would be really cool to document
how the plastic travels across
the ocean, because that was
something that impacted me a
lot on my first Atlantic crossing.
[Lrke]
Plastic pollution
in our oceans is a huge problem,
and it's constantly making
me think about better solutions.
I live in the Canary Islands where
I work with Clean Ocean Project,
so I'm always on the beach
collecting trash, doing beach cleanups.
And I remember one time
on one beach we found
over 45 plastic bottles and
they were from all over the world,
and many of those bottles
have crossed the Atlantic
because they travel with the same
winds and the currents as the boats do.
So I thought it would be
interesting to follow that journey.
I just need, I need help. Yeah.
[Kianas Grandmother]
Well, can I help?
[Lrke] I met Kiana when she had just done
her first Atlantic crossing by herself,
and she was passing through
the Canary Islands, and I thought,
what a badass woman,
I want to do something with her.
So we started talking, and quickly
we started dreaming about doing a project
and we had no money.
But eventually I thought, I want to do this
and I want to make it
happen no matter what.
So I sold my old car.
I sold my surfboard.
I told everyone, See you in three months.
and I went to see Kiana.
I met her in the boatyard,
and then she told me
there are a few problems with the boat,
but we're still going to
be sailing in two weeks.
The two weeks quickly
turned into a full year.
[Kiana]
We ended up peeling the tar
and nylon coating off of the boat
and exposing all the bare wood
that we glassed over, which
was a very laborious process.
On top of that, fare and paint,
prime and paint.
Then we changed the entire top deck.
[Kiana]
Yeah! Watch out!
[Lrke] We learned that nothing
really ever goes as planned,
and that's just a big part
of the whole adventure.
And even if it was hard most of the time,
we were lucky that we
received a lot of support
from friends and family
and people around us,
and that was a big motivator to keep going,
and also, we both knew that the alternative
that would be, giving
up, would be even harder.
[Kiana]
I have no money, nor anything to give
The only thing I have is love to love
If that's how you want
me, then I can love you
But if you can't, there's nothing to do
[Aliz]
Kiana, who I had only met once,
previously at the boatyard
when I saw this boat in shambles basically,
sent me a message
asking if I wanted to cross
the North Atlantic Ocean
and make a documentary about it.
My first
response was like, yes,
heck yeah!
It's been a dream of mine
since early teenage years.
Like maybe 13 or 15
I started dreaming about sailing,
but never really looking
or seeking out for an experience.
I feel very drawn
to the unknown and pushing myself
and being in uncomfortable situations
and exciting situations.
So it's just like the instinctual yes.
Hell yes.
Every cell in my body
was like, Let's go girl,
let's go and cross an Ocean!
I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
[Kiana]
For preparations of the voyage,
I always have a tendency
of taking too much food,
but in this instance, having
three people instead of one,
I was completely lost
in the sense of like how
much we would need.
So I just used, like, all these kinds
of vegetables that take
a long time to go off.
We had a 16 six-gallon jerry cans.
In that one gallon per person per day,
that includes your tea, your showering,
your drinking water.
Power comes from solar panels,
180W of solar panels, and four batteries.
And for cooking fuel,
there's a propane stove,
and we took three tanks of propane.
[Aliz]
I learned very quickly,
after three weeks of waiting
for good wind to leave,
because I thought the wind was like,
Yeah, haha, the wind is always good!
It requires a lot of
patience, and it requires you
to be very humble
and wait
and listen.
And I think that has a lot to teach.
Oh I see. Oh
That for me was a test in itself.
I thought I was like,
yeah, I'm patient, I'm Zen.
But those first three
weeks waiting for wind,
I was not Zen.
But it makes you
just realize that you're not in control.
All you can control is
yourself, your emotional state.
[Aliz]
Shock is a life threatening condition
in which blood flow to
the tissues of the body
is inadequate and cells
are deprived of oxygen.
Any serious injury or
illness can produce shock...
[Kiana] We left Beaufort, North
Carolina on June 27th, 2022.
Headed for Flores in the Azores.
As the crow flies, that
is 2200 nautical miles,
so you'd hope that you'd
be moving at 100 miles a day,
and that would give us an arrival estimate
of about 25 days.
[Lrke]
That whole experience of not seeing land.
I wouldn't say it was
a very dramatic feeling.
Cause it's so fast that you don't see land.
The whole time, even though
you're surrounded by water,
you just feel like
you're in a small bubble,
and I think it's just
impossible to comprehend
that you are in this massive ocean.
[Aliz]
Liz, you're doing a great job.
Thank you for guiding us.
I can't believe
this is the boat that we painted.
Sanded, like, did all these things.
It's so strange to see it in the water.
Thinking about this boat
in the boatyard for so long.
And now its was just doing
what it's supposed to do.
My plastic lookout spot.
[Aliz] It's insane. We're in
the middle of freaking nowhere.
[Lrke]
This one is freaking old.
- We knew that crossing the Atlantic,
it would be basically impossible
for us to pick up plastic.
But then we thought that the
best way would just be to document
what we see and do it in
the most systematic way.
So we made a little logbook
where we logged down everyday
what we could see of plastic, what
we were able to pick up, and then
also just logging down the weather,
the conditions, the way the water looked.
The boats we saw, wildlife.
[Kiana]
Oh, hes stuck in there.
[Lrke]
There's a little fish inside?
[Kiana]
Yeah.
[Lrke]
Oh. Oh, he's still alive.
[Kiana]
Yeah. He was breathing.
He was probably stuck in
there and couldnt get out.
[Aliz]
Oh my God.
[Kiana] I was so excited to
be back out at sea on this boat
that was longing for the
water again for so long.
It's the place where I feel
the safest and the most alive,
but also at the same
time, I was super nervous
because I had just rebuilt this boat.
I didn't know how it was going to react
to heavier swell or whatever we might face.
And also, having crew aboard
was super nerve-wracking because
now I have not only the
responsibility of myself and of the boat,
but of two other lives.
With the calmer weather it was really nice
because then I was able to acclimate to
the energy of other people on the boat.
Over a year on the hard with the boat,
we acquired many-a-creatures.
One lizard, Liz.
She stayed with us,
ended up going out to sea,
which I don't think she expected.
And I really don't think she knew
what she was getting herself into
by making Mara Noka her new home.
[Kiana]
It's my co-captain.
Navigator
extraordinaire.
[Aliz]
How many nautical miles have we sailed?
And we have to sail 2200.
Just a little bit more!
[Lrke]
Can I just do one? One quick one.
[Kiana]
Go, straight down.
[Lrke]
You can't really see much.
Oh, look at it! So pretty.
[Kiana]
Good Night.
[Aliz]
Mwah.
[Kiana] Being able to remove
yourself from the land and the buzz
and the people and all that energy,
and to row out to your boat
and you're in your own world.
Your own small island in a calm sea.
It makes the present way more present
to not be connected to the
whole world at the same time,
and just be connected to yourself
and where you are in that moment.
It makes me feel able to
just let my guard down and relax,
and that vulnerability
of being out at sea, too.
It's not, like, I don't fight it.
It doesn't make me feel uncomfortable.
It is that surrender thing.
It's being able to just let myself go
and not have a guard or a wall up,
which I think I do around people
or around noises and movement and things.
[Aliz]
Its a little piece of plastic there!
[Aliz]
There's something that happens in the brain
where when time doesnt
exist, it's like, I'm good!
I didn't really know what day was ever
or, you know,
what day of the week or what hour it was.
There's no rush in having to do anything.
I'm someone that moves very quickly
throughout the world,
and I don't know if I like
that part of myself anymore.
I like how productive I can be.
But then also, there's this thing
that the ocean calls you to do,
and it's just to
take your time.
I wish that we all had
more space to reflect
upon nature and the
vastness that surrounds us,
and all the things that
we're intricately connected to
in mysterious ways and
in very obvious ways,
because we all kind of need each other,
but we're just too busy
to even think about it
or have the desire to do it.
I wouldn't say that the still
days made me feel peaceful
because Atlantic is massive
and I know crossing the Atlantic,
if were just floating around with no wind,
it's going to take 90 days or more.
So it felt relaxing in a
very strange way, because
if you're about to run a marathon
and there's a bench like after ten minutes
and you sit down and
you're not going to fully relax,
I mean, it's nice that
you can just sit down, but
you know what's ahead of you.
So it's an interesting feeling.
[Kiana]
In the North Atlantic
wind will come.
Itll come.
[Aliz]
Is it going to be scary wind?
No, I don't think so.
But,
we wont be out here with
no wind forever, that's for sure.
I can just see us floating the wrong way.
No!
Yeah, we're just drifting sideways.
Were wanting to go this way.
Yeah.
We want that way now.
Oh were drift Are we drifting that way?
We're drifting that way.
Fuck!
Drifting the wrong way
Drifting away!
Would that set us off, like,
a few days or something?
No, we're not moving that fast.
Coming from there.
Its fucking with me.
You feel it?
Yeah.
Urgh!
[Aliz]
Im like
[Sick noises]
Its going to happen.
It is going to happen.
I can't look at you, but.
[Sick noises]
I'm sorry. I did my best.
Oh wow.
[Aliz]
Love you, Liz.
[Lrke]
Love you, Liz!
[Aliz]
Liz doesnt know it yet
but she's the protagonist of this movie.
[Sick noises]
I love to sing in the ocean!
No one can hear me way out here!
I'm just a lonely little sailor...
[Kiana]
I try not to think ever
about actual position.
The fact that we're way, way,
way in the middle of nowhere.
I try not to think about
the depth of the water,
just because they show you the immense
power of the ocean.
I don't look at maps full scale
because that shits scary.
[laughter]
But to see the surface
and to watch the ripples
and watch how the waves change,
especially as the wind starts to pick up.
So you have a nice calm
day and there's no whitecaps,
and as soon as you see
one, that feeling of change,
it's very apparent.
I think as humans,
before we had speech, and
that form of communication,
everything was so visual,
and that's how I feel like the ocean is,
it's obvious, it's right
there in front of you,
and also the understanding
that it's moving all the time.
It feels like life.
Like intense life and the flow
of energy that we all experience
through human relations or trying to
to navigate our meaning.
That flow of energy is, it's unstoppable.
And we try to stop our own,
I think sometimes or other people's,
but we can't.
[Crash]
No!
[Lrke]
It was kind of like a feeling of,
oh, shit. Now it starts.
I was somehow hoping that it wouldn't, but
I knew that stuff was going to break.
[Kiana]
On day seven, the gaff broke.
That makes the mainsail for the
rig that Mara Noka has unusable.
It's pretty fucked.
The mainsail was modified
specifically for the length of that gaff,
so it needed to be extended
to be able to pull the sail back up.
[Aliz]
I don't remember feeling at all like,
Why?!
Right away I felt like
someone was going to
know how to solve this.
Obviously Kiana,
and would give us the tasks to do,
but I never doubted the situation,
never felt fearful.
[Kiana]
I was struggling with that the whole time.
I appreciate it, and I think
it's beautiful and it's wonderful.
But there was always the aspect
of having other people around,
and the reason I started sailing alone is
because of my insecurity of
being observed when I'm
doing something wrong,
because it becomes very apparent
when you do something wrong,
whether somebody else is
there to pointed out or not.
And I'm still learning.
So to have people relying on me
and looking at me for
why or how or what, you know,
I dont have any practice in it,
and it was just it was really new for me.
How to make a movie:
Go out on a wooden boat
in the middle of the ocean.
Wait.
See what happens.
[Lrke]
It's kind of fun to break this
relaxed rhythm we had at the retreat
with a little bit of something.
[Aliz]
Yeah, this is definitely exciting.
[Kiana]
Ship, ship, ship, ship.
This is sailing vessel
to your forward port side.
Do you copy? Over.
[Radio]
Sailing Vessel, Cruise Ship. Go ahead.
Hi cruise ship.
We are on our way to
Azores with an east heading.
I was wondering if you could give me,
uh, some weather forecast
for the next couple of days.
[Cruise ship]
Yeah. Weather forecast for
today and tomorrow.
So you can expect southwest
winds with gusts up to 35,
35 to 40 knots in this area,
and also waves around three meters,
and second of all,
you can also expect some passing
rain showers tomorrow as well.
[Kiana]
Thank you sir.
[Cruise ship] Okay. Welcome, have
a good, pleasant and safe voyage.
[Kiana]
Yeah!
We're going to get wind!
[Aliz]
Lots of it. That's kind of scary!
[Lrke]
How much?
40 knots, 35, 40 knots.
[Lrke]
Oh my God.
[Kiana]
But, uh, only for the day tomorrow,
and then it goes away
by nighttime, gusting 15.
[Aliz]
40 knots?
I'm not extremely excited I would say.
Yeah Im a little afraid.
- I would be fine without that experience.
Like, this is 13 knots.
So imagine 40. Like it's,
that's a storm.
Like thats a gale.
I don't know, but I'm imagining
if we leave that up,
it's going to rip the sail apart
and that fork is going to...
I think we're going to
hopefully take it down.
[Aliz]
Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, Kiana didn't
seem too scared about it.
She was excited.
Yeah.
Shes crazy.
Youre going out to sea
with a captain whos not afraid of dying.
[Kiana]
Hand over hand.
Stand, no.
Yes.
Its a little intimidating.
[Lrke]
Being so close to the ocean, it feels like
everything that's happening
is not happening randomly,
and that whole thing of just
being humble to the elements
also makes you more superstitious
and makes you feel
that whatever little sign of
light in the clouds or whatever
nice experience that the sea
brings you, you deserve that.
[Lrke]
What are you doing?!
Stop this witchcraft!
[Kiana]
Dude, I wonder if it's abandoned.
Uh, whistle or, uh, the horn!
There's a horn right there next to you.
[Radio Static]
[Kiana]
I'm only getting static from your end.
Are you outside?
[Lrke]
I think it's abandoned.
[Kiana]
But we got static on the radio!
[Lrke]
That is true.
[Lrke]
Do you see anyone with binoculars?
[Kiana]
It was so frightening
to be in the conditions that we were in,
with such swell and still with wind,
and this newfound sense of reality
that what happened to them
could happen to us, or worse?
If you can come to
the bow for proof of life,
I'm not sure if radio signal is working.
[Kiana]
Oh shit, we already jibed,
I need you to bring it around please.
Did you get that interference on video?
[Aliz]
I don't know.
That was fucking weird,
though, to get the interference.
That's so weird.
[Lrke]
It was a very scary feeling
and we tried to get close, but
we couldn't really with the waves.
But leaving the boat, I
think that was the most scary.
Just like after that, thinking,
I wonder what happened?
Like, what's the story behind this boat?
And just feeling helpless,
like we couldn't do anything.
And a feeling of wanting to
alert somebody about this.
And just thinking about
all these different scenarios
that could have happened
and even thinking that
what if somebody was
on that boat and injured?
Or what if this is somebody's father? Or,
I don't know. Just a lot of feelings
and very strange to just
be the only boat out there seeing this
and then just sailing away from it
without doing anything,
without being able to do anything.
It was kind of like a strange
little ghost that just somehow
poked on our shoulder
saying, this is a possibility.
Ive been feeling kind of like
shit for the past three days.
And today I took a COVID test
and I have COVID.
I don't understand.
But this is it.
[Lrke] It just made me feel
very uncomfortable in those days,
because it made me feel more unsafe,
because I couldn't really
rely on my own strength.
[Aliz]
I was prepared to be seasick.
Kiana said seasickness lasts 3 to 5 days,
and then you're cured.
So don't worry about it.
For me, it lasted the first two weeks.
Being super sleepy
and then puking every once in a while.
You know, I took it as it came,
and it did feel like I
was this little baby,
new to the world,
like a newborn child being rocked to sleep
by this big mama.
I felt like I was being soothed
into this new experience
through a dreamlike state.
[Kiana]
It was very scary
to have someone so sick on the boat,
wasn't able to eat
or drink water for so many days,
and I had never seen that before.
I experienced seasickness
passing much more quickly.
Made me very nervous
in the responsibility of keeping two people
healthy and alive.
Its not good if Im
throwing up all my water.
[Kiana]
A breeze started coming out of the east,
which was the direction
that we were heading in,
and that could only mean in the Northern
hemisphere at that time of year,
that there was a low pressure
approaching from below us.
[Lrke]
I think it was about 5 a.m. in the morning.
I think we had three-meter waves.
It was raining. It was wet.
[Lrke]
Kiana!
I saw that the forestay had popped.
So the roller furler was
just flapping around.
Kiana quickly realized that
the only way to get it down
was to climb up the mast.
I had to pull her up,
the deck was so slippery.
She just got the harness on and went up.
I felt like I was going to
pass out the whole time.
I was sick.
I felt even too weak to cry
for help, and I also felt like
there was no other
option than to just do it.
This morning too, when that happened,
I'd been asleep for, like, 12 minutes,
and the forestay was down like that.
The drum on the thing
and it came unlashed.
Popped.
Between the ass and the mast I
felt like I was just pulling on your skin.
[Kiana]
A little bit.
Now I got to climb up
there and tie it back on,
and then eventually
well put sail back up...
but not today.
But I gotta put that up soon.
[Lrke]
For me, being inside
that bunk there in the
front was... uncomfortable.
Not uncomfortable physically, mentally
because it was...
The sounds are just, they're very intense
in there because you're in the front,
and the way we were sailing, the waves
would slam on the side of the hull
so loud.
[Loud crash]
[Kiana Panting]
[Aliz]
Aaah!
Also just getting used to
what all the sounds are...
but at no point did I really feel relaxed
sleeping in that front bunk.
I could only sleep if I put a podcast on
or covered my ears
completely with a blanket,
because the sounds, they
were just too dramatic,
And I think it just for me,
it invoked some sort
of like survival instinct.
I feel like
were just so adaptable as humans and
your level of comfort and discomfort
or whatever that is, just
gets pushed all the time.
But there was also always
some sort of comfort.
I guess it is just that
thing that nothing is forever.
Ocean. Ocean. Ocean.
This is sailing vessel Mara Noka.
We would like to request
a little bit less wind
if possible, over.
It doesnt work.
Its broken.
It's the salt. It got to it.
Its tied on.
It's so close.
It's like so close.
I feel like I need a shower.
Ill pay whoever makes
us orange juice 20 bucks.
[Kiana]
Let it go. Let it go some more.
Leave a little slack.
And dinner.
[Aliz]
Fucking huge wave!
Rain before wind?
[Lrke]
Settle in!
[Aliz]
Let me see.
[Lrke]
Its just split.
[Kiana]
Ow!
[Lrke]
It's not that bad.
[Aliz]
A wave just hit
and did this to us.
[Kiana]
Oh my God. Liz, what are you doing?
Get down from there, Liz!
[Kiana]
Oh, she's hanging on for dear life.
[Aliz]
Oh, my God, you have Liz.
[Lrke]
Its okay, Liz, youre safe now.
I might reef the mainsail.
[Lrke]
Yeah.
Probably before this meal is over.
[Kiana]
Overnight, the wind started swinging,
and we were able to sail downwind.
In the middle of the night
we were flying.
Probably doing seven and a half knots.
By first light, the wind really picked up.
It was at its peak,
so I knew that I needed to reef the sail.
[Aliz]
This bitch just went up.
[Lrke]
Huh?
[Aliz]
She just went up, yeah.
- She went up the mast?
[Kiana]
I attempted to reef it downwind,
which usually works,
but not at that wind speed.
And the sail ended up getting caught,
and I couldn't bring it down.
It swung to the other side and tore.
[Lrke]
We should have taken it down.
[Kiana]
No, I should have
done the taking it down differently.
I should have waited.
I should have done different things.
But I wasn't thinking
correctly.
[Aliz]
Its okay.
[Kiana]
We were not able to stitch the sail,
because to be able to
stitch the sail properly,
you need to put some kind of adhesive,
and that was not going to be, possible
in such conditions.
[Kiana]
Pray for what?
I prayed for the forks.
[Kiana]
I know.
Like us, the forks, the boom, the
gaff, the sail. Now I'm nervous.
[Aliz]
Pruney.
[Aliz]
Eww
Rain, rain go away
come again another day
I just want to sleep.
In that book there's this one part
where he talks about
his first storm,
when he was a young merchant mariner,
and he's talking about the different
captains he worked with,
and they're in a storm, and
they had like 70-foot seas.
And the captain just
stood there the whole time
and never said a fucking word,
and he would just smoke
cigarettes and stand there.
But he looked very calm,
and anytime somebody would talk to him
or ask him something,
he would just nod or shake his head.
But he just stood there
and stared out the window
the whole time.
And then the guy was like, uh,
talking about how it made him calm
because he knew that no matter what,
they were going to survive.
And I said, I like that.
While I'm sitting there reading,
smoking cigarettes, hiding.
I have no money, nor anything to give
The only thing I have is love to love
If that's how you want me
then I can love you
but if you can't, there's nothing to do
[Aliz]
It's all been kind of like a test.
[Lrke]
Yeah,
of what though?
[Aliz]
Patience and trust.
Surrender.
Discomfort. We're not in control here.
She is.
The ocean or Kiana?
[Aliz]
Both.
No, the Ocean really...
Oh my God.
[Aliz]
Might be a coping mechanism
to joke around all the time, but
there were a lot of
moments of just comical relief
or using humor to get
through difficult situations,
and that is something that I appreciate
a lot about being around people
that are so good and so resilient is
it makes it easy to be
stuck on a small boat
with each other.
It's so cool it's like,
it's like the water is on fire
and its all smoke, the clouds.
I'm out of here. Ah!
[Aliz]
Where is that water coming from?
[Lrke]
Rain from God.
Angel's tears.
[Aliz]
That's plastic
right there.
Basically, everywhere
humans ingest enough microplastics
that it's equal to one credit card a week.
Microplastics act like a magnet to
all the pollutions that are in the water.
So it's just floating
around, like all this stuff
thats been banned since the 80s,
and when it finds a piece of microplastic,
it's latches onto it.
And that definitely
is not being like, going through our body.
That's just staying there.
[Aliz]
So we're just ingesting it from what?
Water...
Water, food, everything.
[Lrke]
Yeah.
Fish. Water. Food. Salt,
sea salt.
[Kiana]
There's like little white flakes...
Floating in my tea.
[Lrke]
After a full year
or even almost two years of being naive
and always having people
tell me, wow, you're so brave,
or you guys are crazy or all
these things, and I was like,
I don't really know why
everyone says that to me,
and I never felt any of those
things that people were talking about.
Also, it was all the time
an imaginary scenario
crossing the Atlantic on this boat,
and then suddenly you're
actually leaving land on this boat,
and then all of it just
comes into your mind like,
Oh, shit, it's I guess, oh.
Might be a little crazy.
[Kiana]
Easy, right?
It's just stressful.
And we could have been way better prepared.
I just didn't really
expect it to be that strong.
It's going to end when it's going to end.
Like theres nothing I can do about it,
and it's going to end, and
that's it.
So all the shit in the world could break,
and so long as this boat stays upright,
we're fine.
[Kiana]
We have 12 days left
of water on the port bow at one gallon
per person.
[Kiana]
Its caught! Behind you.
[Kiana]
That should never happen.
Very dangerous.
[Lrke]
You didn't, you just didn't tell me
to let this go.
Yeah but you started pulling
it, so I thought you had let it go.
You have to let it go, then pull.
[Lrke] It's funny how
the mind just stays positive.
Like I keep looking at the sky
and whatever little
something in the light, Im like:
Oh looks like it's clearing up!
[Aliz]
Chilled Wine...
Congratulations.
[Lrke]
Thank you for
getting us this far.
[Kiana]
Thanks for not falling overboard.
We got drunk from drinking all that...
Nobody needs to know that it costs $5.99.
Three glasses.
Half way!
Half way.
Over there is nice.
Lets go over there!
Fuck it, lets just go wherever its blue.
[Kiana]
Ive got 37, 1, 6, 4, 58, 35 West.
[Inaudible Radio]
Ocean, ocean, ocean,
this is sailing vessel Mara
Noka in the center of you,
requesting a little bit
less wind, some sunshine
and less swell. Over.
[Kiana]
Its stuck.
Mr. Storm
you're never gonna break my heart!
Okay, it can stay like this
if you need to go downstairs,
come take your pancakes.
Yes!
Sunshine!
[Aliz]
Ahhhh!
Oh God.
Woah.
Theres so much happening.
Woooo!
Yeah!
North Atlan...
Urgh!
[Kiana]
I feel very rewarded
for coming out of the
other end of that storm.
And the sun started to shine.
And our spirits started to rise.
And we were able to climb out of our
little dark, wet holes
and dry ourselves and dry
our things and be able to
connect again and return to community.
Because I think in those days of tempest
we had retreated into our own solitude
to keep our own individual minds strong.
It was
truly a gift to have beautiful blue skies
and beautiful sunsets and sunrises
and the sun shining and wildlife around us
beginning to show itself again.
It was truly lovely.
[Aliz Squealing]
What kind of whale was that?
[Lrke]
So happy to see you.
You getting a little sun?
This is heaven.
You appreciate the small things in life
with this lifestyle.
Like being able to wash yourself
after three days
of smelling like a shoe.
[Kiana]
Reel him in.
[Aliz]
Holy Mother.
Its a Mahi Mahi!
Oh my God, oh my God.
you are so pretty!
[Aliz]
This is so exciting.
Please stay with us,
Stay with us. Please, God.
[Aliz gasps]
What?
Oh my gosh.
[Aliz screaming]
Oh my God! Oh my God!
[Lrke]
This is already
harder to get out.
Thank you.
He was a very sweet fish.
He had, like, a very calm personality.
I think he sacrificed himself to us.
[Aliz]
He did.
[Lrke]
I'm sorry.
I decided to not trawl for
the fish for the first time
and actually hold the lure,
and after ten minutes,
really thinking about today was the day
I was going to catch a fish,
we caught this one,
and it was pretty easy to pull in.
For this gift from the ocean
After 25 days.
Were going to eat every part of it.
[Kiana]
Yeah.
[Aliz]
Thank you Ocean.
Thank you fishy.
- Thank you Mahi Mahi!
Theres his heart.
Thats the heart?
- Yeah.
So good.
[Kiana]
It feels so natural.
The loss of sense of time.
It's totally non-linear.
You just are. Every day.
But what time is it? What do I need to do?
Where do I need to go?
I need to meet somebody at 9 oclock.
It doesn't exist. There is no 9 oclock.
[Aliz]
Wow, it's so beautiful!
Swim under there.
[Kiana and Aliz singing]
Yes, Indeed, yes, indeed
you will have my love again
[Aliz]
So what did we see today?
We saw...
I saw a food wrapper,
and I saw some clear plastic
and then I saw, I
think a little yogurt cup,
and then I saw a plastic bottle
and actually, there was a plastic cup too.
[Lrke]
Its pretty wild
we still went that right direction
with all the drifting.
Where was the ghost ship? That was here?
- That was after...
Because I remember you saying,
Look, we're doing pretty well.
[Laughter]
Dominican Bachata
Ay, Jos!
Stop it!
He's very skilled.
I'm just learning the bachata.
Its so good.
So good.
[Aliz]
All right.
It's time.
Almost there.
[Kiana]
Mackerel skies and mares tails
make tall ships carry low sails.
[Lrke]
So that means we're gonna have wind?
[Aliz]
She really got up in my business.
What's up baby?
Wha Hi, it's good to see you.
[Kiana]
Yeah.
Turn the light off,
shes trying to go to the light.
[Kiana]
It is a storm petrel.
It would presumably
indicate a breeding site
in the general vicinity,
meaning
[Lrke]
Were close to land.
- We're almost there.
Dun-dun-dun.
[Kiana] If you're doing
something or participating in a life
that maybe you shouldn't
be or is not meant for you,
there's a lot of ill feelings,
depression,
anger, anxiety, frustration,
and it's not necessarily that
there's something wrong with us.
There's not.
Feeling peace or feeling right.
Having that complete
knowledge that you're doing
what you need to be
doing is really incredible,
and I think it involves trusting that,
because how miserable would it be to
just live your entire life
feeling uncomfortable,
feeling like there's
something else out there
but you're afraid to leave.
Maybe a relationship or a job or
your home town.
A false sense of comfort,
because the unknown is scary,
but it's not scary anymore.
As soon as you let it go,
as soon as you dive in,
it's not scary.
I never felt afraid.
Sometimes I felt worried,
but I never felt afraid.
Just because you're fighting for your life,
but in a positive way,
in an intrinsic human animal way,
surpassing fear
and understanding that fear is not fear.
It's a mourning more of the idea
of letting go of what you know, and
that as soon as you do,
there's a whole other experience out there
that you can experience
until you feel that feeling again,
and then you let go of that one.
I think it's so important.
To just trust yourself.
All the time.
Don't waste time, you know.
Don't waste time on
what you think should be,
and just go for what you feel should be.
[Aliz Screaming]
Oh my God!
[Lrke]
My father, whos a sailor,
he told me once that he loves to watch
the big waves crash onto
shore and that impact,
and I asked him why.
And he told me that those waves,
they travel so far, and
they've been through so
many different things that
make them into what they are,
and then once they hit shore,
that whole journey ends,
and there is just something beautiful
and something kind of brutal in that water
having been able to move,
having been able to transform.
The journey ends
but then that water returns to the ocean
and it becomes something else,
and it goes on another journey
and it transforms in another way.
[Lrke]
I felt slightly excited to see land,
but not at all in the way
that I would have imagined
one week into the journey at all.
Like it felt like the
ocean, the boat, the sailing
was suddenly the home
and the familiar world
and the comfort zone,
and then looking at
land seemed intimidating.
[Aliz]
I did not want at all to land there.
I was so kind of,
it was kind of sad
that we were in this
magical container of like,
just being in presence.
[Lrke] This whole experience
feels like this beautiful lesson,
and it felt like we had
to go through challenges
[Kiana]
She just died.
- Almost made it to Portugal.
That the ocean brought
to us, but almost as if
the ocean was like looking at us
and being like, I'm going to just
test them out, see how they do,
and then we got through it
and then,
the reward was just so much beauty,
and to me, it felt like we
went into another dimension,
and then suddenly the ocean
being this intimidating
thing that you always were slightly
anxious about, what was going to bring,
suddenly just felt like like a paradise
of sea life.
In my soul,
inside of me, this experience is
like a massive moving thing,
so I dont know.
[Aliz]
I feel like after this,
I trust myself
in a level that I never did
because I know that I
can go through hardship
and uncomfortable situations
like seasickness for two weeks
and still have like high spirits
and not complain about it because I cant
like, how can I complain
about something so small
when I've experienced
something so immense around me?
I saw myself in a new light.
I've never been in those
kinds of experiences
where I'm like, really able
to see how strong I am.
And not just strong physically,
but on the mental and emotional side too.
[Kiana]
The ocean,
the earth, the animals, the wind, the sun,
that's real.
The more in tune you become
with yourself and your abilities to create
a life or to imagine
it become reality, to manifest, to
to fight that fear, to put the fear aside,
and really go for it
the more
you become connected to the whole.
[Kiana] I had been feeling
very lost in absolute freedom.
Not having any
responsibilities besides this boat,
not having anything to do.
So when Lrke told me
that she wanted to go sailing,
I got really excited about
the possibility of a project.
I knew I wanted to do a
project that was not about me.
It was not necessarily about the boat,
it was not necessarily about
how we sail or whatever,
but I wanted it to include other people.
I've always lived my life in such a way
that when I feel something exciting,
I chase after it and keep
doing it and keep talking about it
as if it's going to happen,
whether I know it is or not.
[Aliz]
That's how you sail?!
- Yeah.
It just seemed very cool
to join the idea of women
sailing across the North Atlantic,
which not many people do in general,
it's not the choice trip
because it's rough.
And the boat being so rustic and simple
in its capabilities to sail
across, it's interesting.
Mara Noka is a James Wharram design.
NARAI Mark one,
built in 1971 through 74.
It's based off of the Rongo,
which was James Wharrams second boat
that he built to cross the North Atlantic
west to east for the first time ever.
Nobody had done that on a catamaran before.
I found Mara Noka in Panama.
I did not know how to sail
at all when I got the boat,
I did not know how to pull up the mainsail.
I understood wind,
but when I started sailing,
it really felt like the
boat was sailing me.
After one week of sailing constantly
for the first time,
I started to know the noises
and that was such an
interesting experience.
I dont know, you create like
a symbiosis with this vessel.
Through that first year of sailing,
it was really, really rough all the time
to watch the boat get loose
and feeling this sense of debt to the boat.
I could feel that it was in pain sometimes,
but still enjoyed what it was doing.
Theres just such a
special connection with it.
It felt like it was excited for
new adventures.
[Lrke] When I lived in my
hometown, I would go often down
and just sit by the water and look out.
And even though it was a bay,
you couldn't see land on the other side,
and I've always just found a lot of
peace in looking at the ocean,
because it's like a blank canvas and
you can just look out and
anything seems possible.
I've always wanted to
sail on a long journey since I was a child,
and I remember these books
from this sailor family in Denmark that
my parents would read to me,
and there was one about one of the kids
going on this big journey,
and they were in the Caribbean, and
they met all these animals.
Like seeing dolphins and turtles,
and it's just been in
my head for a long time,
and then I just started to tell people that
I was going across the Atlantic,
and then sometimes I create my own reality
by just repeating stuff,
and then that was what I wanted to do.
[Kiana]
Eventually
figured it would be really cool to document
how the plastic travels across
the ocean, because that was
something that impacted me a
lot on my first Atlantic crossing.
[Lrke]
Plastic pollution
in our oceans is a huge problem,
and it's constantly making
me think about better solutions.
I live in the Canary Islands where
I work with Clean Ocean Project,
so I'm always on the beach
collecting trash, doing beach cleanups.
And I remember one time
on one beach we found
over 45 plastic bottles and
they were from all over the world,
and many of those bottles
have crossed the Atlantic
because they travel with the same
winds and the currents as the boats do.
So I thought it would be
interesting to follow that journey.
I just need, I need help. Yeah.
[Kianas Grandmother]
Well, can I help?
[Lrke] I met Kiana when she had just done
her first Atlantic crossing by herself,
and she was passing through
the Canary Islands, and I thought,
what a badass woman,
I want to do something with her.
So we started talking, and quickly
we started dreaming about doing a project
and we had no money.
But eventually I thought, I want to do this
and I want to make it
happen no matter what.
So I sold my old car.
I sold my surfboard.
I told everyone, See you in three months.
and I went to see Kiana.
I met her in the boatyard,
and then she told me
there are a few problems with the boat,
but we're still going to
be sailing in two weeks.
The two weeks quickly
turned into a full year.
[Kiana]
We ended up peeling the tar
and nylon coating off of the boat
and exposing all the bare wood
that we glassed over, which
was a very laborious process.
On top of that, fare and paint,
prime and paint.
Then we changed the entire top deck.
[Kiana]
Yeah! Watch out!
[Lrke] We learned that nothing
really ever goes as planned,
and that's just a big part
of the whole adventure.
And even if it was hard most of the time,
we were lucky that we
received a lot of support
from friends and family
and people around us,
and that was a big motivator to keep going,
and also, we both knew that the alternative
that would be, giving
up, would be even harder.
[Kiana]
I have no money, nor anything to give
The only thing I have is love to love
If that's how you want
me, then I can love you
But if you can't, there's nothing to do
[Aliz]
Kiana, who I had only met once,
previously at the boatyard
when I saw this boat in shambles basically,
sent me a message
asking if I wanted to cross
the North Atlantic Ocean
and make a documentary about it.
My first
response was like, yes,
heck yeah!
It's been a dream of mine
since early teenage years.
Like maybe 13 or 15
I started dreaming about sailing,
but never really looking
or seeking out for an experience.
I feel very drawn
to the unknown and pushing myself
and being in uncomfortable situations
and exciting situations.
So it's just like the instinctual yes.
Hell yes.
Every cell in my body
was like, Let's go girl,
let's go and cross an Ocean!
I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
[Kiana]
For preparations of the voyage,
I always have a tendency
of taking too much food,
but in this instance, having
three people instead of one,
I was completely lost
in the sense of like how
much we would need.
So I just used, like, all these kinds
of vegetables that take
a long time to go off.
We had a 16 six-gallon jerry cans.
In that one gallon per person per day,
that includes your tea, your showering,
your drinking water.
Power comes from solar panels,
180W of solar panels, and four batteries.
And for cooking fuel,
there's a propane stove,
and we took three tanks of propane.
[Aliz]
I learned very quickly,
after three weeks of waiting
for good wind to leave,
because I thought the wind was like,
Yeah, haha, the wind is always good!
It requires a lot of
patience, and it requires you
to be very humble
and wait
and listen.
And I think that has a lot to teach.
Oh I see. Oh
That for me was a test in itself.
I thought I was like,
yeah, I'm patient, I'm Zen.
But those first three
weeks waiting for wind,
I was not Zen.
But it makes you
just realize that you're not in control.
All you can control is
yourself, your emotional state.
[Aliz]
Shock is a life threatening condition
in which blood flow to
the tissues of the body
is inadequate and cells
are deprived of oxygen.
Any serious injury or
illness can produce shock...
[Kiana] We left Beaufort, North
Carolina on June 27th, 2022.
Headed for Flores in the Azores.
As the crow flies, that
is 2200 nautical miles,
so you'd hope that you'd
be moving at 100 miles a day,
and that would give us an arrival estimate
of about 25 days.
[Lrke]
That whole experience of not seeing land.
I wouldn't say it was
a very dramatic feeling.
Cause it's so fast that you don't see land.
The whole time, even though
you're surrounded by water,
you just feel like
you're in a small bubble,
and I think it's just
impossible to comprehend
that you are in this massive ocean.
[Aliz]
Liz, you're doing a great job.
Thank you for guiding us.
I can't believe
this is the boat that we painted.
Sanded, like, did all these things.
It's so strange to see it in the water.
Thinking about this boat
in the boatyard for so long.
And now its was just doing
what it's supposed to do.
My plastic lookout spot.
[Aliz] It's insane. We're in
the middle of freaking nowhere.
[Lrke]
This one is freaking old.
- We knew that crossing the Atlantic,
it would be basically impossible
for us to pick up plastic.
But then we thought that the
best way would just be to document
what we see and do it in
the most systematic way.
So we made a little logbook
where we logged down everyday
what we could see of plastic, what
we were able to pick up, and then
also just logging down the weather,
the conditions, the way the water looked.
The boats we saw, wildlife.
[Kiana]
Oh, hes stuck in there.
[Lrke]
There's a little fish inside?
[Kiana]
Yeah.
[Lrke]
Oh. Oh, he's still alive.
[Kiana]
Yeah. He was breathing.
He was probably stuck in
there and couldnt get out.
[Aliz]
Oh my God.
[Kiana] I was so excited to
be back out at sea on this boat
that was longing for the
water again for so long.
It's the place where I feel
the safest and the most alive,
but also at the same
time, I was super nervous
because I had just rebuilt this boat.
I didn't know how it was going to react
to heavier swell or whatever we might face.
And also, having crew aboard
was super nerve-wracking because
now I have not only the
responsibility of myself and of the boat,
but of two other lives.
With the calmer weather it was really nice
because then I was able to acclimate to
the energy of other people on the boat.
Over a year on the hard with the boat,
we acquired many-a-creatures.
One lizard, Liz.
She stayed with us,
ended up going out to sea,
which I don't think she expected.
And I really don't think she knew
what she was getting herself into
by making Mara Noka her new home.
[Kiana]
It's my co-captain.
Navigator
extraordinaire.
[Aliz]
How many nautical miles have we sailed?
And we have to sail 2200.
Just a little bit more!
[Lrke]
Can I just do one? One quick one.
[Kiana]
Go, straight down.
[Lrke]
You can't really see much.
Oh, look at it! So pretty.
[Kiana]
Good Night.
[Aliz]
Mwah.
[Kiana] Being able to remove
yourself from the land and the buzz
and the people and all that energy,
and to row out to your boat
and you're in your own world.
Your own small island in a calm sea.
It makes the present way more present
to not be connected to the
whole world at the same time,
and just be connected to yourself
and where you are in that moment.
It makes me feel able to
just let my guard down and relax,
and that vulnerability
of being out at sea, too.
It's not, like, I don't fight it.
It doesn't make me feel uncomfortable.
It is that surrender thing.
It's being able to just let myself go
and not have a guard or a wall up,
which I think I do around people
or around noises and movement and things.
[Aliz]
Its a little piece of plastic there!
[Aliz]
There's something that happens in the brain
where when time doesnt
exist, it's like, I'm good!
I didn't really know what day was ever
or, you know,
what day of the week or what hour it was.
There's no rush in having to do anything.
I'm someone that moves very quickly
throughout the world,
and I don't know if I like
that part of myself anymore.
I like how productive I can be.
But then also, there's this thing
that the ocean calls you to do,
and it's just to
take your time.
I wish that we all had
more space to reflect
upon nature and the
vastness that surrounds us,
and all the things that
we're intricately connected to
in mysterious ways and
in very obvious ways,
because we all kind of need each other,
but we're just too busy
to even think about it
or have the desire to do it.
I wouldn't say that the still
days made me feel peaceful
because Atlantic is massive
and I know crossing the Atlantic,
if were just floating around with no wind,
it's going to take 90 days or more.
So it felt relaxing in a
very strange way, because
if you're about to run a marathon
and there's a bench like after ten minutes
and you sit down and
you're not going to fully relax,
I mean, it's nice that
you can just sit down, but
you know what's ahead of you.
So it's an interesting feeling.
[Kiana]
In the North Atlantic
wind will come.
Itll come.
[Aliz]
Is it going to be scary wind?
No, I don't think so.
But,
we wont be out here with
no wind forever, that's for sure.
I can just see us floating the wrong way.
No!
Yeah, we're just drifting sideways.
Were wanting to go this way.
Yeah.
We want that way now.
Oh were drift Are we drifting that way?
We're drifting that way.
Fuck!
Drifting the wrong way
Drifting away!
Would that set us off, like,
a few days or something?
No, we're not moving that fast.
Coming from there.
Its fucking with me.
You feel it?
Yeah.
Urgh!
[Aliz]
Im like
[Sick noises]
Its going to happen.
It is going to happen.
I can't look at you, but.
[Sick noises]
I'm sorry. I did my best.
Oh wow.
[Aliz]
Love you, Liz.
[Lrke]
Love you, Liz!
[Aliz]
Liz doesnt know it yet
but she's the protagonist of this movie.
[Sick noises]
I love to sing in the ocean!
No one can hear me way out here!
I'm just a lonely little sailor...
[Kiana]
I try not to think ever
about actual position.
The fact that we're way, way,
way in the middle of nowhere.
I try not to think about
the depth of the water,
just because they show you the immense
power of the ocean.
I don't look at maps full scale
because that shits scary.
[laughter]
But to see the surface
and to watch the ripples
and watch how the waves change,
especially as the wind starts to pick up.
So you have a nice calm
day and there's no whitecaps,
and as soon as you see
one, that feeling of change,
it's very apparent.
I think as humans,
before we had speech, and
that form of communication,
everything was so visual,
and that's how I feel like the ocean is,
it's obvious, it's right
there in front of you,
and also the understanding
that it's moving all the time.
It feels like life.
Like intense life and the flow
of energy that we all experience
through human relations or trying to
to navigate our meaning.
That flow of energy is, it's unstoppable.
And we try to stop our own,
I think sometimes or other people's,
but we can't.
[Crash]
No!
[Lrke]
It was kind of like a feeling of,
oh, shit. Now it starts.
I was somehow hoping that it wouldn't, but
I knew that stuff was going to break.
[Kiana]
On day seven, the gaff broke.
That makes the mainsail for the
rig that Mara Noka has unusable.
It's pretty fucked.
The mainsail was modified
specifically for the length of that gaff,
so it needed to be extended
to be able to pull the sail back up.
[Aliz]
I don't remember feeling at all like,
Why?!
Right away I felt like
someone was going to
know how to solve this.
Obviously Kiana,
and would give us the tasks to do,
but I never doubted the situation,
never felt fearful.
[Kiana]
I was struggling with that the whole time.
I appreciate it, and I think
it's beautiful and it's wonderful.
But there was always the aspect
of having other people around,
and the reason I started sailing alone is
because of my insecurity of
being observed when I'm
doing something wrong,
because it becomes very apparent
when you do something wrong,
whether somebody else is
there to pointed out or not.
And I'm still learning.
So to have people relying on me
and looking at me for
why or how or what, you know,
I dont have any practice in it,
and it was just it was really new for me.
How to make a movie:
Go out on a wooden boat
in the middle of the ocean.
Wait.
See what happens.
[Lrke]
It's kind of fun to break this
relaxed rhythm we had at the retreat
with a little bit of something.
[Aliz]
Yeah, this is definitely exciting.
[Kiana]
Ship, ship, ship, ship.
This is sailing vessel
to your forward port side.
Do you copy? Over.
[Radio]
Sailing Vessel, Cruise Ship. Go ahead.
Hi cruise ship.
We are on our way to
Azores with an east heading.
I was wondering if you could give me,
uh, some weather forecast
for the next couple of days.
[Cruise ship]
Yeah. Weather forecast for
today and tomorrow.
So you can expect southwest
winds with gusts up to 35,
35 to 40 knots in this area,
and also waves around three meters,
and second of all,
you can also expect some passing
rain showers tomorrow as well.
[Kiana]
Thank you sir.
[Cruise ship] Okay. Welcome, have
a good, pleasant and safe voyage.
[Kiana]
Yeah!
We're going to get wind!
[Aliz]
Lots of it. That's kind of scary!
[Lrke]
How much?
40 knots, 35, 40 knots.
[Lrke]
Oh my God.
[Kiana]
But, uh, only for the day tomorrow,
and then it goes away
by nighttime, gusting 15.
[Aliz]
40 knots?
I'm not extremely excited I would say.
Yeah Im a little afraid.
- I would be fine without that experience.
Like, this is 13 knots.
So imagine 40. Like it's,
that's a storm.
Like thats a gale.
I don't know, but I'm imagining
if we leave that up,
it's going to rip the sail apart
and that fork is going to...
I think we're going to
hopefully take it down.
[Aliz]
Yeah, that makes sense.
Well, Kiana didn't
seem too scared about it.
She was excited.
Yeah.
Shes crazy.
Youre going out to sea
with a captain whos not afraid of dying.
[Kiana]
Hand over hand.
Stand, no.
Yes.
Its a little intimidating.
[Lrke]
Being so close to the ocean, it feels like
everything that's happening
is not happening randomly,
and that whole thing of just
being humble to the elements
also makes you more superstitious
and makes you feel
that whatever little sign of
light in the clouds or whatever
nice experience that the sea
brings you, you deserve that.
[Lrke]
What are you doing?!
Stop this witchcraft!
[Kiana]
Dude, I wonder if it's abandoned.
Uh, whistle or, uh, the horn!
There's a horn right there next to you.
[Radio Static]
[Kiana]
I'm only getting static from your end.
Are you outside?
[Lrke]
I think it's abandoned.
[Kiana]
But we got static on the radio!
[Lrke]
That is true.
[Lrke]
Do you see anyone with binoculars?
[Kiana]
It was so frightening
to be in the conditions that we were in,
with such swell and still with wind,
and this newfound sense of reality
that what happened to them
could happen to us, or worse?
If you can come to
the bow for proof of life,
I'm not sure if radio signal is working.
[Kiana]
Oh shit, we already jibed,
I need you to bring it around please.
Did you get that interference on video?
[Aliz]
I don't know.
That was fucking weird,
though, to get the interference.
That's so weird.
[Lrke]
It was a very scary feeling
and we tried to get close, but
we couldn't really with the waves.
But leaving the boat, I
think that was the most scary.
Just like after that, thinking,
I wonder what happened?
Like, what's the story behind this boat?
And just feeling helpless,
like we couldn't do anything.
And a feeling of wanting to
alert somebody about this.
And just thinking about
all these different scenarios
that could have happened
and even thinking that
what if somebody was
on that boat and injured?
Or what if this is somebody's father? Or,
I don't know. Just a lot of feelings
and very strange to just
be the only boat out there seeing this
and then just sailing away from it
without doing anything,
without being able to do anything.
It was kind of like a strange
little ghost that just somehow
poked on our shoulder
saying, this is a possibility.
Ive been feeling kind of like
shit for the past three days.
And today I took a COVID test
and I have COVID.
I don't understand.
But this is it.
[Lrke] It just made me feel
very uncomfortable in those days,
because it made me feel more unsafe,
because I couldn't really
rely on my own strength.
[Aliz]
I was prepared to be seasick.
Kiana said seasickness lasts 3 to 5 days,
and then you're cured.
So don't worry about it.
For me, it lasted the first two weeks.
Being super sleepy
and then puking every once in a while.
You know, I took it as it came,
and it did feel like I
was this little baby,
new to the world,
like a newborn child being rocked to sleep
by this big mama.
I felt like I was being soothed
into this new experience
through a dreamlike state.
[Kiana]
It was very scary
to have someone so sick on the boat,
wasn't able to eat
or drink water for so many days,
and I had never seen that before.
I experienced seasickness
passing much more quickly.
Made me very nervous
in the responsibility of keeping two people
healthy and alive.
Its not good if Im
throwing up all my water.
[Kiana]
A breeze started coming out of the east,
which was the direction
that we were heading in,
and that could only mean in the Northern
hemisphere at that time of year,
that there was a low pressure
approaching from below us.
[Lrke]
I think it was about 5 a.m. in the morning.
I think we had three-meter waves.
It was raining. It was wet.
[Lrke]
Kiana!
I saw that the forestay had popped.
So the roller furler was
just flapping around.
Kiana quickly realized that
the only way to get it down
was to climb up the mast.
I had to pull her up,
the deck was so slippery.
She just got the harness on and went up.
I felt like I was going to
pass out the whole time.
I was sick.
I felt even too weak to cry
for help, and I also felt like
there was no other
option than to just do it.
This morning too, when that happened,
I'd been asleep for, like, 12 minutes,
and the forestay was down like that.
The drum on the thing
and it came unlashed.
Popped.
Between the ass and the mast I
felt like I was just pulling on your skin.
[Kiana]
A little bit.
Now I got to climb up
there and tie it back on,
and then eventually
well put sail back up...
but not today.
But I gotta put that up soon.
[Lrke]
For me, being inside
that bunk there in the
front was... uncomfortable.
Not uncomfortable physically, mentally
because it was...
The sounds are just, they're very intense
in there because you're in the front,
and the way we were sailing, the waves
would slam on the side of the hull
so loud.
[Loud crash]
[Kiana Panting]
[Aliz]
Aaah!
Also just getting used to
what all the sounds are...
but at no point did I really feel relaxed
sleeping in that front bunk.
I could only sleep if I put a podcast on
or covered my ears
completely with a blanket,
because the sounds, they
were just too dramatic,
And I think it just for me,
it invoked some sort
of like survival instinct.
I feel like
were just so adaptable as humans and
your level of comfort and discomfort
or whatever that is, just
gets pushed all the time.
But there was also always
some sort of comfort.
I guess it is just that
thing that nothing is forever.
Ocean. Ocean. Ocean.
This is sailing vessel Mara Noka.
We would like to request
a little bit less wind
if possible, over.
It doesnt work.
Its broken.
It's the salt. It got to it.
Its tied on.
It's so close.
It's like so close.
I feel like I need a shower.
Ill pay whoever makes
us orange juice 20 bucks.
[Kiana]
Let it go. Let it go some more.
Leave a little slack.
And dinner.
[Aliz]
Fucking huge wave!
Rain before wind?
[Lrke]
Settle in!
[Aliz]
Let me see.
[Lrke]
Its just split.
[Kiana]
Ow!
[Lrke]
It's not that bad.
[Aliz]
A wave just hit
and did this to us.
[Kiana]
Oh my God. Liz, what are you doing?
Get down from there, Liz!
[Kiana]
Oh, she's hanging on for dear life.
[Aliz]
Oh, my God, you have Liz.
[Lrke]
Its okay, Liz, youre safe now.
I might reef the mainsail.
[Lrke]
Yeah.
Probably before this meal is over.
[Kiana]
Overnight, the wind started swinging,
and we were able to sail downwind.
In the middle of the night
we were flying.
Probably doing seven and a half knots.
By first light, the wind really picked up.
It was at its peak,
so I knew that I needed to reef the sail.
[Aliz]
This bitch just went up.
[Lrke]
Huh?
[Aliz]
She just went up, yeah.
- She went up the mast?
[Kiana]
I attempted to reef it downwind,
which usually works,
but not at that wind speed.
And the sail ended up getting caught,
and I couldn't bring it down.
It swung to the other side and tore.
[Lrke]
We should have taken it down.
[Kiana]
No, I should have
done the taking it down differently.
I should have waited.
I should have done different things.
But I wasn't thinking
correctly.
[Aliz]
Its okay.
[Kiana]
We were not able to stitch the sail,
because to be able to
stitch the sail properly,
you need to put some kind of adhesive,
and that was not going to be, possible
in such conditions.
[Kiana]
Pray for what?
I prayed for the forks.
[Kiana]
I know.
Like us, the forks, the boom, the
gaff, the sail. Now I'm nervous.
[Aliz]
Pruney.
[Aliz]
Eww
Rain, rain go away
come again another day
I just want to sleep.
In that book there's this one part
where he talks about
his first storm,
when he was a young merchant mariner,
and he's talking about the different
captains he worked with,
and they're in a storm, and
they had like 70-foot seas.
And the captain just
stood there the whole time
and never said a fucking word,
and he would just smoke
cigarettes and stand there.
But he looked very calm,
and anytime somebody would talk to him
or ask him something,
he would just nod or shake his head.
But he just stood there
and stared out the window
the whole time.
And then the guy was like, uh,
talking about how it made him calm
because he knew that no matter what,
they were going to survive.
And I said, I like that.
While I'm sitting there reading,
smoking cigarettes, hiding.
I have no money, nor anything to give
The only thing I have is love to love
If that's how you want me
then I can love you
but if you can't, there's nothing to do
[Aliz]
It's all been kind of like a test.
[Lrke]
Yeah,
of what though?
[Aliz]
Patience and trust.
Surrender.
Discomfort. We're not in control here.
She is.
The ocean or Kiana?
[Aliz]
Both.
No, the Ocean really...
Oh my God.
[Aliz]
Might be a coping mechanism
to joke around all the time, but
there were a lot of
moments of just comical relief
or using humor to get
through difficult situations,
and that is something that I appreciate
a lot about being around people
that are so good and so resilient is
it makes it easy to be
stuck on a small boat
with each other.
It's so cool it's like,
it's like the water is on fire
and its all smoke, the clouds.
I'm out of here. Ah!
[Aliz]
Where is that water coming from?
[Lrke]
Rain from God.
Angel's tears.
[Aliz]
That's plastic
right there.
Basically, everywhere
humans ingest enough microplastics
that it's equal to one credit card a week.
Microplastics act like a magnet to
all the pollutions that are in the water.
So it's just floating
around, like all this stuff
thats been banned since the 80s,
and when it finds a piece of microplastic,
it's latches onto it.
And that definitely
is not being like, going through our body.
That's just staying there.
[Aliz]
So we're just ingesting it from what?
Water...
Water, food, everything.
[Lrke]
Yeah.
Fish. Water. Food. Salt,
sea salt.
[Kiana]
There's like little white flakes...
Floating in my tea.
[Lrke]
After a full year
or even almost two years of being naive
and always having people
tell me, wow, you're so brave,
or you guys are crazy or all
these things, and I was like,
I don't really know why
everyone says that to me,
and I never felt any of those
things that people were talking about.
Also, it was all the time
an imaginary scenario
crossing the Atlantic on this boat,
and then suddenly you're
actually leaving land on this boat,
and then all of it just
comes into your mind like,
Oh, shit, it's I guess, oh.
Might be a little crazy.
[Kiana]
Easy, right?
It's just stressful.
And we could have been way better prepared.
I just didn't really
expect it to be that strong.
It's going to end when it's going to end.
Like theres nothing I can do about it,
and it's going to end, and
that's it.
So all the shit in the world could break,
and so long as this boat stays upright,
we're fine.
[Kiana]
We have 12 days left
of water on the port bow at one gallon
per person.
[Kiana]
Its caught! Behind you.
[Kiana]
That should never happen.
Very dangerous.
[Lrke]
You didn't, you just didn't tell me
to let this go.
Yeah but you started pulling
it, so I thought you had let it go.
You have to let it go, then pull.
[Lrke] It's funny how
the mind just stays positive.
Like I keep looking at the sky
and whatever little
something in the light, Im like:
Oh looks like it's clearing up!
[Aliz]
Chilled Wine...
Congratulations.
[Lrke]
Thank you for
getting us this far.
[Kiana]
Thanks for not falling overboard.
We got drunk from drinking all that...
Nobody needs to know that it costs $5.99.
Three glasses.
Half way!
Half way.
Over there is nice.
Lets go over there!
Fuck it, lets just go wherever its blue.
[Kiana]
Ive got 37, 1, 6, 4, 58, 35 West.
[Inaudible Radio]
Ocean, ocean, ocean,
this is sailing vessel Mara
Noka in the center of you,
requesting a little bit
less wind, some sunshine
and less swell. Over.
[Kiana]
Its stuck.
Mr. Storm
you're never gonna break my heart!
Okay, it can stay like this
if you need to go downstairs,
come take your pancakes.
Yes!
Sunshine!
[Aliz]
Ahhhh!
Oh God.
Woah.
Theres so much happening.
Woooo!
Yeah!
North Atlan...
Urgh!
[Kiana]
I feel very rewarded
for coming out of the
other end of that storm.
And the sun started to shine.
And our spirits started to rise.
And we were able to climb out of our
little dark, wet holes
and dry ourselves and dry
our things and be able to
connect again and return to community.
Because I think in those days of tempest
we had retreated into our own solitude
to keep our own individual minds strong.
It was
truly a gift to have beautiful blue skies
and beautiful sunsets and sunrises
and the sun shining and wildlife around us
beginning to show itself again.
It was truly lovely.
[Aliz Squealing]
What kind of whale was that?
[Lrke]
So happy to see you.
You getting a little sun?
This is heaven.
You appreciate the small things in life
with this lifestyle.
Like being able to wash yourself
after three days
of smelling like a shoe.
[Kiana]
Reel him in.
[Aliz]
Holy Mother.
Its a Mahi Mahi!
Oh my God, oh my God.
you are so pretty!
[Aliz]
This is so exciting.
Please stay with us,
Stay with us. Please, God.
[Aliz gasps]
What?
Oh my gosh.
[Aliz screaming]
Oh my God! Oh my God!
[Lrke]
This is already
harder to get out.
Thank you.
He was a very sweet fish.
He had, like, a very calm personality.
I think he sacrificed himself to us.
[Aliz]
He did.
[Lrke]
I'm sorry.
I decided to not trawl for
the fish for the first time
and actually hold the lure,
and after ten minutes,
really thinking about today was the day
I was going to catch a fish,
we caught this one,
and it was pretty easy to pull in.
For this gift from the ocean
After 25 days.
Were going to eat every part of it.
[Kiana]
Yeah.
[Aliz]
Thank you Ocean.
Thank you fishy.
- Thank you Mahi Mahi!
Theres his heart.
Thats the heart?
- Yeah.
So good.
[Kiana]
It feels so natural.
The loss of sense of time.
It's totally non-linear.
You just are. Every day.
But what time is it? What do I need to do?
Where do I need to go?
I need to meet somebody at 9 oclock.
It doesn't exist. There is no 9 oclock.
[Aliz]
Wow, it's so beautiful!
Swim under there.
[Kiana and Aliz singing]
Yes, Indeed, yes, indeed
you will have my love again
[Aliz]
So what did we see today?
We saw...
I saw a food wrapper,
and I saw some clear plastic
and then I saw, I
think a little yogurt cup,
and then I saw a plastic bottle
and actually, there was a plastic cup too.
[Lrke]
Its pretty wild
we still went that right direction
with all the drifting.
Where was the ghost ship? That was here?
- That was after...
Because I remember you saying,
Look, we're doing pretty well.
[Laughter]
Dominican Bachata
Ay, Jos!
Stop it!
He's very skilled.
I'm just learning the bachata.
Its so good.
So good.
[Aliz]
All right.
It's time.
Almost there.
[Kiana]
Mackerel skies and mares tails
make tall ships carry low sails.
[Lrke]
So that means we're gonna have wind?
[Aliz]
She really got up in my business.
What's up baby?
Wha Hi, it's good to see you.
[Kiana]
Yeah.
Turn the light off,
shes trying to go to the light.
[Kiana]
It is a storm petrel.
It would presumably
indicate a breeding site
in the general vicinity,
meaning
[Lrke]
Were close to land.
- We're almost there.
Dun-dun-dun.
[Kiana] If you're doing
something or participating in a life
that maybe you shouldn't
be or is not meant for you,
there's a lot of ill feelings,
depression,
anger, anxiety, frustration,
and it's not necessarily that
there's something wrong with us.
There's not.
Feeling peace or feeling right.
Having that complete
knowledge that you're doing
what you need to be
doing is really incredible,
and I think it involves trusting that,
because how miserable would it be to
just live your entire life
feeling uncomfortable,
feeling like there's
something else out there
but you're afraid to leave.
Maybe a relationship or a job or
your home town.
A false sense of comfort,
because the unknown is scary,
but it's not scary anymore.
As soon as you let it go,
as soon as you dive in,
it's not scary.
I never felt afraid.
Sometimes I felt worried,
but I never felt afraid.
Just because you're fighting for your life,
but in a positive way,
in an intrinsic human animal way,
surpassing fear
and understanding that fear is not fear.
It's a mourning more of the idea
of letting go of what you know, and
that as soon as you do,
there's a whole other experience out there
that you can experience
until you feel that feeling again,
and then you let go of that one.
I think it's so important.
To just trust yourself.
All the time.
Don't waste time, you know.
Don't waste time on
what you think should be,
and just go for what you feel should be.
[Aliz Screaming]
Oh my God!
[Lrke]
My father, whos a sailor,
he told me once that he loves to watch
the big waves crash onto
shore and that impact,
and I asked him why.
And he told me that those waves,
they travel so far, and
they've been through so
many different things that
make them into what they are,
and then once they hit shore,
that whole journey ends,
and there is just something beautiful
and something kind of brutal in that water
having been able to move,
having been able to transform.
The journey ends
but then that water returns to the ocean
and it becomes something else,
and it goes on another journey
and it transforms in another way.
[Lrke]
I felt slightly excited to see land,
but not at all in the way
that I would have imagined
one week into the journey at all.
Like it felt like the
ocean, the boat, the sailing
was suddenly the home
and the familiar world
and the comfort zone,
and then looking at
land seemed intimidating.
[Aliz]
I did not want at all to land there.
I was so kind of,
it was kind of sad
that we were in this
magical container of like,
just being in presence.
[Lrke] This whole experience
feels like this beautiful lesson,
and it felt like we had
to go through challenges
[Kiana]
She just died.
- Almost made it to Portugal.
That the ocean brought
to us, but almost as if
the ocean was like looking at us
and being like, I'm going to just
test them out, see how they do,
and then we got through it
and then,
the reward was just so much beauty,
and to me, it felt like we
went into another dimension,
and then suddenly the ocean
being this intimidating
thing that you always were slightly
anxious about, what was going to bring,
suddenly just felt like like a paradise
of sea life.
In my soul,
inside of me, this experience is
like a massive moving thing,
so I dont know.
[Aliz]
I feel like after this,
I trust myself
in a level that I never did
because I know that I
can go through hardship
and uncomfortable situations
like seasickness for two weeks
and still have like high spirits
and not complain about it because I cant
like, how can I complain
about something so small
when I've experienced
something so immense around me?
I saw myself in a new light.
I've never been in those
kinds of experiences
where I'm like, really able
to see how strong I am.
And not just strong physically,
but on the mental and emotional side too.
[Kiana]
The ocean,
the earth, the animals, the wind, the sun,
that's real.
The more in tune you become
with yourself and your abilities to create
a life or to imagine
it become reality, to manifest, to
to fight that fear, to put the fear aside,
and really go for it
the more
you become connected to the whole.