Quick update
I’ve forgotten almost completely why I began this writing project.
Was it a journal? Was it for non-fiction, creative fiction? Was it confessional?
I’m sitting here at the nav station drinking coffee. The dog sleeps in the cockpit, fed and petted a bit for the morning. I read some Bonhoeffer. Today we move on from Warderick Wells, a National Park where we spent two days, to Compass Cay where we will swim with some sharks and see some of the best beaches in the Exumas.
Today is Monday and it’s the final full week of the trip. Next Tuesday we fly out of Georgetown, near the base of the Exuma island chain to Miami. We’ll spend the week meandering southward, hitting the spots recommended to us as we crossed paths with cruisers just coming out of them.
In one of my earliest entries I asked myself why I’m doing this trip — why when a person is called out of their normal life and into adventure, they accept.
I want to say it begins with a pursuit. You believe there is more to learn, more experiences to be had that will build you as a person, give you more to smile at and less to regret on your death bed. More skills to gain (sailing in this case) that you may adopt into your “normal” life and enrich it.
In my case, there is also a renewed contact with the benevolence of the universe or God if you will. You go to new places, you show up as a confused traveler not knowing up from down, and people embrace you. Not everyone. Most remain in their patterns and pay you no mind. But over and over again there are people you’ve never met prepared to take you in, show you around, show you kindness and generosity, and move you forward.
In the aforementioned entry, I also concluded that I was seeking presence of mind. I can say that with only one week remaining I have not achieved it. I have had many beautiful experiences, lots that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. But mentally I am the same as when I got here. Tight as a fist. Thinking always of my company, of some kind of “progress” that should be made somewhere, and how will I overcome such and such a problem. And perhaps rightly so. My company is extremely early and needs a lot of attention. I was also introduced to a kind of slacker boater mindset during some early interactions that gave me anxiety about getting too soft out here.
But let me move on to the positive. Standing on the bow on Saturday evening as we were entering the narrow channel at Warderick Wells, boat hook in hand which I would shortly use to spear a mooring ball, waves crashing against the hull underneath me, I felt a great serenity. Dozens of small, flat islands surrounded me, sitting atop a glowing blue and gold ocean. My knees bent and flexed underneath me to absorb the shocks of the waves. The sound of the 25mph wind filled my ears.
We had just heard on the radio that the Park Rangers were hosting a happy hour for all of the park guests. This kind of timing — arriving just as happy hour was starting, is what I was referring to above regarding the benevolence of the universe. Here’s another. After failing at our first pass trying to grab a mooring ball due to super strong wind and current, a neighbor called us on the radio who’d seen us and offered to help. He’d go over in his dinghy and pick it up out of the water and hand it to me on the bow, making my job significantly easier.
After helping us tie up, he offered us a ride to happy hour. And off we went. We met some other fun boaters, played some bocce, and when it got dark and everyone had left, we stayed and drank rum with the park rangers and another Bahamian who was stationed on the island from the Bahamian defense force.
My attitude this week will be to prioritize sailing, snorkeling and spear-fishing. I’ll try to get the most out of this final week, planning to hit work stuff hard when we get back to the states.
