part of it was the speed of their sailing per se , for after endless days of trudging forward they were finally making headway at a pace that didnt seem like a prelude to death ; and death , moreover , seemed for the first time to be a thing of the past , of the barrenness theyd left behind not that there was the slightest evidence of life in the dull grey waters they tore through , but life is a contagion : the more animated they felt by the wind tousling their hair and stinging their cheeks , the more these things appeared as conscious , and intensely alive .