The storm roiled on the horizon as rough waves rocked the helm of the fishing vessel. The captain had known the storm was coming—he had watched the weather reports for the past several days of the journey—but he started to question his decision as the waves got more powerful. One wave slapped the vessel and knocked him to the deck; when he stood up on unsteady feet, he grabbed the wheel with both hands. Though he had been a fishing boat captain for years and knew that the sea was the safest place for a vessel in a storm, these moments always terrified him. He had spent most of his life on the sea; he knew the habits and nuances of the water like it was his closest friend. The calmness that he felt when the water was placid wasn’t like any stillness that he experienced on land. And though he didn’t like the choppy waves when he could barely stay upright, he knew that these moments were necessary too. It was like life—in order to get to the peace, he had to weather the storm.

His wife, Marla, didn’t understand his obsession with the water, why he spent months of the year navigating a boat full of crab fishermen to isolated spots of the ocean hundreds of miles from shore. She couldn’t grasp why he didn’t get the same satisfaction from life behind a desk—the stable job in an office downtown that Marla wanted him to have. He had tried things her way, but that had only lasted a couple years; after a while, she could tell that he was miserable, and she gave him her permission to do what he loved. He gave his job two weeks’ notice and was back on the sea right away.

He knew he missed things while he was away on these fishing boats: he listened to his wife’s voice over an unreliable cell phone connection. He’d had to watch his daughter Ky speak her first words on a video that chirped into his phone. And though he’d been there for her first steps, he’d missed her first day of preschool, and there would inevitably be other milestones that he would miss.

He stared into the blackness of the storm and knew that the fishermen below deck were relying on him to get them safely back to their families—he knew this because he was aware of how his own family relied on him. He knew that he had to stay focused, even when he wanted to think about what his wife was doing now. He would see her in a week—and he’d be able to take his daughter to school again. He’d be able to go to the grocery store and the park and do all the everyday things that he missed while at sea.

He touched the picture of his family that was inside his raincoat as the next wave approached. He imagined their voices telling him that they were proud of him, and it filled him with a strength that he hadn’t felt at other times during this journey. In the morning, the storm would die down, and he would enjoy the quiet. In the morning, he would call his daughter and tell her about the big storm and hear the wonder in her voice as he described the size of each wave. But for now, he was a man on a mission; he took a deep breath and held onto the steering wheel with every bit of his strength.

“Let’s go,” he thought as the biggest wave of all crashed into the boat.

Read the excerpt from "Life on the Sea."

The calmness that he felt when the water was placid wasn’t like any stillness that he experienced on land.

How do the words calmness, placid, and stillness show what the captain is feeling?

They show that the captain has trouble finding quiet on the boat.

They show that the captain wants the boat to stop moving.

They show that the captain wishes his mood could mimic the water's movement.

They show that the captain can truly feel peaceful when on the water.