So I am on a whaling voyage

I am feeling really homesick, so after a phone conversation with my dw and children today, I called my mother to cry on her shoulder. She listened patiently for about twenty minutes, but she had somewhere she needed to go, so she asked my dad to talk to me. Whenever my dad talks to me about the situation I am in, he tells me this:

"Pretend you are on a whaling voyage."

My response today was: "Well, how the heck long does a whaling voyage last exactly?!"

My dad: "It could last TWO YEARS."

Me: "No way. The meat would go bad before you'd ever get back home."

My dad: "The whale oil is really what they were harvesting. It sold for a lot of money and made the voyage worth it."

(My mom, who was getting ready to go in the background but heard the conversation: "It's true. Read _Ahab's Wife_")

Me: "Fine, I'll pretend I am on a whaling voyage."

My dad: "There's no going back home when you are at sea, kid. But you know people have done it before you, so you can too. And lots of those whalers had happy homes, good families."

So I am on a whaling voyage. Ah-hoy! Better start learning some whaling songs.