Today we are recovering from yesterday’s adventure of getting our boat off the tidal flats in the dark. The episode included a bunch of disgusting mud that got pulled up with the anchors we had out, and this morning we awoke feeling hung over from stress to find our boat a disaster, with mud, anchor lines, and stuff everywhere. So we’ve been cleaning today. That feels good to get things back in order, getting ourselves ready to leave. We have a hopeful window on Monday or Tuesday to at least get to Cape May. We want to be ready to cast off as soon as the wind changes. But for now it continues to howl relentlessly at 20-25 knots from the west-southwest.
So to all you readers out there who are following our adventures with dreams of doing this yourself one day, and to those of you who may think cruising on a sailboat is a never ending sail into the sunset and moonlight encounters with dolphins, here is a reality check. Sometimes you end up stuck in a crappy place for a week with nothing to do but stress out about the weather. Sometimes a simple trip to the grocery store turns into an all day adrenaline filled hell that you were not in the mood for. Some nights you crawl into bed covered in mud and all you want to do is cry.
Maybe that’s what makes the good moments so good, the fact that you have to endure a lot of crap to be able to enjoy this lifestyle. Maybe, as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I don’t really know, and there are days like yesterday that make me convinced we really are insane to be out here doing this. But here we are in the middle of it now, so we’re gonna keep going.
I’m glad that you don’t just write about the swimming-with-dolphin bits. Ah….life’s dichotomies, and the pitfalls, the mud. When you’re in it, it’s not fun, but years from now, you’ll be laughing about it.
I love reading this blog, as it get’s me away from my land-locked reality for a minute, and gets me to shift my own perspective life’s throes. So thanks for that. No matter if you’re writing about the muck or luck, it’s the Way that intrigues and keeps me riveted.
Here in the SF Bay Area, I’m surrounded by water, and I rarely get a chance to actually be on it and experience it. Now, I seem to be surrounded by people that either live on boats, or use them to sail, when they can get away from their busy landlubbing lives.
I think writing helps us to get it into a concrete place that we can control. And we can hit the delete button when it helps, and put an extra semi-colon when warranted, but when you’re out in the thick of Nature’s Wrath, well, we are all pretty powerless. So, let the words keep their flow, and know that they are feeding us who read them, romantic or not. Think of all the Travelers before you…Kerouac, Melville, Steinbeck, who fed our dreams. Their stories were not all roses with pretty pink bows around them. It’s the salt of the earth that gets us to rise up and feel our Humanity and Do Something.
Anyhow…keep laughing, even during the stress. It’s what keeps us from that brink of insanity. I’m sure of it. And know you’ve got a huge support network out here. Thanks for the inspiration.
xoxo,
a.
Ahh, yes, and it is the “Way”, which is now part of our boat’s name, that keeps us going. The question is how to follow the way of happiness even when you are covered in stinking mud and the winds are relentlessly against you? How to find the laughter amidst the stress? How to keep remembering to love each other when you’re hungry and cold and crabby? These things and more are what we are really out here learning just as much as how to tie knots and understand currents.
Thanks for your words of support and understanding, Alicia! It means so, so much just to know you are out there! Love you!!