Sailing
through large empty horizons at night on the ocean, under sail gives
you true religion.... You can really reach deep down inside yourself
under those skies... Sailing can be very difficult at times and presents
you with many choices regarding your present situation, which means you
are really living in the moment...Being alone surrounded by 360 degrees
of empty horizons, with no trace of another living soul allows you the
freedom to really examine yourself and become familiar with who you
are... Probably my favorite part about being out on the ocean is the
skies... A person cannot help but change under a moonless and cloudless
night sky, far enough off the coast not to have any light
contamination... Only the lucky few who are out there are enjoying the
view, losing it is the price you pay for living in the city... Life can
really feel amazing on the water, almost overwhelming at times... I
knew everything I changed in my life so I could be on a boat, happened
while anchored off an uninhabited island in the Spanish Virgin Islands
named Culabrita... A wildlife sanctuary, with white uninhabited beaches
lined with palm trees, cliffs on the north where I did a painting, and
nearby on the short mountain top, the abandoned remains of a light house
built in 1901 and I had the island all to myself... Living with
nature, learning the laws of tides and moon phases, or trying to read
the horizon approaching you connects you with the natural forces and if
you are smart you will listen and learn from them...
Cape Hatteras
has a bad reputation and over 600 shipwreck along its coastline to back
it up, but so does my girl CHOICES, she's got a reputation she has
earned... She was designed for the Northern Latitudes has proved
herself worthy to the task, even at the expense of my fumbling abilities
and constant begging her forgiveness but if she'd just give me one more
chance I won't let this happen again, I promise... I passed Cape Fear
which by it's name says it all, without incident going South, got me the
most scared I have gotten off that same coast the Summer before, when
it took me 6 days to go 200 miles, with hurricane force winds blowing my
boat over to being in the middle of a major lightening storm headed
North. That passage was what made me chicken out of going North around
the outside of Cape Hatteras, and instead take the ICW through the
backcountry of North Carolina and then transit into Norfolk via the
Dismal Swamp Canal which is a real experience, despite it’s name it is
beautiful..... On retrospect I really seemed to have the most
challenging times while going around the Capes, they all generate their
own weather patterns leaving them very changeable at best, got my best
lessons handed to me getting around them 4 out of 5 times, but I also
grabbed some great sailing and clocked some nice comfortable speeds at
times over 7 knots… Those kind of lessons either steer us away from our
dreams, or just makes it more worthy… What you come out at the other
end with is the certainty that no matter how bad the lesson, you were
lucky, it can always get worse….
I am now in the process of
"de-cruising" me and my boat, having passed the 1000.0 Nm yesterday on
this last leg of the passage south, which ironically, took place just
down from where I went aground for the first time on this trip and after
some throttling back and forth managed to power myself off... I should
have read the charts a little better
Life is like sailing, I just hang on and hope I survive the storms...