As we make our last round of goodbyes and farewells this week before heading off to our new home – people ask the most amazing questions and say the strangest things!
“What did you have to promise your wife to get her to move to a sailboat?” I didn’t promise her anything. She can’t wait to go!
“Aren’t you afraid of storms?” And this one – “What about pirates?” These two crack me up. You see it is all about perception! ‘Normal’ people (that is people who don’t live on a boat and travel) get in a 3000 pound vehicle and make it go 70 miles an hour past hundreds if not thousands of other people in 3000 pound vehicles speeding towards them at 70 miles per hour six feet away! – without knowing where those other people have been. At the bar maybe? And ‘normal’ people do this day in and day out every day of their lives! They lock their cars, and their homes. They track their kids on their cell phones. There are places they definitely do not go.
We on the other hand do not lock anything, go almost anywhere (in the world) and find people to be extremely friendly curious and welcoming.
Are there pirates? I guess so although I have never met one that I know of. Are there storms? Sure – but here is a very important thing to remember.
When we find ourselves at sea in a storm – it is very uncomfortable and even frightening. So we prepare. We are responsible for our own lives and our home. There is no dialing 911 for help.
We make sure the boat is sea worthy. We get better at knowing the weather than the weather channel. (That’s not hard to do actually…) We know what to do under different conditions.
And when it is all done, and the seas have calmed, or we have reached the safety of a port or an anchorage, and we go to sleep exhausted, wet and grateful to be done; then the joy experienced the next day as you wake up to a gorgeous sunrise on a fresh washed beach, and you see starfish on the bottom at 40 feet, then you understand much of the pleasure from this moment is in direct relation to the experience of the storm.
We understand that extreme joy can only be had by experiencing the opposite. And we do not go to a television or a movie to get that experience. We would rather live it!
Do you have a question you would like us to answer about a sailing life? Ask it. After all someone else might have that same question. We can probably answer it as we built a sailboat in 1989 -90 and sailed for 12,000 miles and 6.5 years. We can even tell you what it is like to have a baby on a boat!
We are very excited to know we are a week away from going home – and although we know we will miss some special people – we also know those same people will never be far away!
