Semester at Sea... Advice?

[blondey8]

Long story short, my boyfriend is on a semester at sea, and I need advice on how to manage periods of time with no communication.

His boat is traveling between various islands. When they are docked on or near an island, he gets cell phone service, so we can talk.
But when the boat is on a passage, traveling between islands from one to another, he is in open water, not near land, so he doesn't get service and he can't send me any messages.

The boat is currently on a passage going to an island that takes over a week to get to. So far, the longest we've had to go without talking is four days. He left a couple days ago and will probably be back in about a week. It doesn't seem like much, but a week is a long time to go without any communication with him, seeing as we usually talk constantly. Time seems to be passing so slowly and I can't keep myself busy enough to not think about it and get sad. I know he's having a great time, and it's just hard. When he gets back next week, he leaves for a near 3 week long passage. If I am barely getting through one week, I don't know how I'll go three weeks without hearing from him.

Everyone says to keep busy and partake in hobbies, but it's not that easy. I miss him a lot. Advice?

[Allurial]

Hello! I found journaling really helps me, or even pretending to write him a letter and never sending it. Write things down that you would normally tell him that way when you finally talk again you will have plenty to say. I enjoy painting as well, so any sort of arts and crafts activity where you keep your hands busy works really well for me currently I am working on a scrapbook for me and my SO.

[blondey8]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm sending him some texts here and there that he'll get whenever he gets service again. And I've been writing down things I do from day-to-day on a note in my phone, so then I'll tell him about it on the phone when he's back. Maybe physically writing it down will be more therapeutic somehow. It's just that whenever I go to write something for him, I think about him obviously and then get really sad

And I know he's on the boat having lots of fun and is kept very busy, so I don't think he's having as much trouble as I am. It's almost painful how much I miss him