In all this sadness, being able to concentrate on something positive is a huge help . While the world appears to be shredding itself into smithereens, and the potential for evil seems to lurk around every corner, “time spent simply messing about in boats” is a soothing and soul-satisfying pastime. We don’t get a paper delivered to the back deck, we don’t have Satellite TV to give us an opportunity to sit glued to CNN watching the ugly reality of our world unfold – quick bites on the cell phone or through Facebook are all I get, while Lawrence refuses to be sucked into negativity and focuses wholly on the job of getting us ready for Cubar and our future cruising plans.
When we are with friends the conversation of course now centres on what’s happening around us, and further out there, in other countries, places that are on our future highly flexible itinerary … places in the past people have warned us about – “don’t go there, you will die”.
Well, one can obviously die as easily in one’s back yard as in some far away harbour, so the argument becomes somewhat weak. Volcanoes erupting, hurricanes destroying, wildfires threatening – didn’t matter this summer which way you looked, we seemed to be at war with Mother Nature. And then throw the human element of craziness into the picture, and you have a perfect storm of “where the hell can we go that won’t kill us?” which is ironic considering the most horrific violence happened not that many miles away from where we are sitting now. And although the spotlight has been turned away from him, the fellow across the water toying with his new nukes does present a rather frightening potential for mind-numbing destruction along this coast.
Do we stay or do we go?
The question certainly deserves some thought, but we can’t let negativity rule our lives. In the boating community, we are surrounded by like-minded individuals and positive, wonderful people, whether they are the ones that fix our boat ( again ) or wax our hull or live in the slip next to us on their beautiful sailboat and dream about their cruising future…(or take us out to dinner and offer up their house for some quality off-the-boat time!)
However, there are some things we can’t control and all out war of any kind in any country we may want to visit would definitely be a reason to put that place on a no-fly list. In spite of all this, there are many amazing and beautiful places we know we can go to – the world is still full of adventure and good people. Even as I write, I have one friend starting on his bike trip through Vietnam, another couple is having the trip of their lifetime exploring India, boater friends are following in the footsteps of many private vessels and exploring the South Pacific on small yachts, and another woman is walking the El Camino trail in Spain. All of those seem like life-changing adventures that shouldn’t be put on the back burner because the world has become a less-safe place on account of some crazy people and an apparently pissed-off mother nature.
At our age, we aren’t about to jump into our next adventure head first with our eyes closed and our fingers crossed. Preparing for a long passage, whether it’s heading down the coast or turning right and voyaging across an ocean, requires a lot of time, energy, money, and thought. It’s important to add in a discussion about where we are going and whether are there issues we need to consider ( drug lords battling it out comes to mind)… and with the internet you can certainly find out what you need to know and use that knowledge to make educated decisions…
So where does this leave us? where am I going with this?
Fact: the world is a crazy place. Some days it is downright scary to even just get out of bed.
But the world is also full of amazing places and fantastic people and we aren’t on this earth for a very long time – and our earth is covered in water that begs to be explored.
I don’t honestly know what the far-away future holds for us, cruising wise… the near future is easy. We are heading back to the Sea of Cortez because we didn’t get a chance to explore it fully, and I can’t imagine anywhere more beautiful! But there are other oceans and seas to explore, and towns to experience, and people to meet, on the water and off. It could be that I’m wrong, and there are prettier places than Aqua Verde or Isla San Francisco. If that’s as far as I get, then I’ll be content – but there are places in my heart of hearts that I want to see, that I can imagine myself visiting – I shared them with Lawrence over a very tasty Italian meal and a cold glass of prosecco yesterday –
The boat is up for it – the Nordhavn 50 is notoriously good at crossing oceans. We are working hard to get everything ready for whatever the future holds ( hahahaha that is an impossible task and we all know boating is just a chance to replace or fix something in exotic places) Emotional ties to the land, to our family, to our friends, are hard to stretch
( never break)… I miss my kids, and my family, and my buddies, and my cats.. but there is more of my life to look back on than to look forward to, and it is time to pick up where we left off and start making more memories.
So Mother Nature, you can scare us but we will try really hard to make you happy, and listen to you when we need to… and as for the rest of the crazy world, we are saddened, and we are frightened, but we are not beaten.
Carpe diem.
Hopefully the future – and the universe – will unfold as it should!