Drifting Through Paradise

I spent most of yesterday driving around from store to store and walking around them, just to try to remember if I need something or want it. I needed a winch handle. That was the main goal in driving around yesterday. It was rainy all day so why not. I got to the store and picked up the handle and the walked the isles. didn’t see anything I needed, just stuff I want, so off to the next store. Walked the isles, nothing I needed. I did this at five other stores, the end result, I have everything I need to set sail. So I will just make sure its all stowed, and then we are ready to go. I will be getting inebriated tonight night with my friends at the marina, because this will be the final blowout until I get to the Norfolk/Newport area, I don’t get drunk when under way, the only people who get drunk at sea are fools or passengers. That’s right, while under way I won’t get drunk. I will have a glass wine or rum in the evening, I mean come on, how can you not relax at anchor watching the sunset after a day of sailing? But while tied to a dock, that’s a different story.

Had dinner aboard It’s Worth it Too last night. Got a few new recipes for my cookbook. I went to town for a little bit then headed back to my place. It was much easier to get back onboard than the night before.

As I stood in the cockpit, I thought about a quote a friend sent me from the TV show Serenity -“You know what the first rule of sailing is? …Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘verse, but you take a boat to the sea you don’t love, she’ll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she’s hurting ‘fore she keens. Makes her a home.”I was looking towards the channel, listening to the rain hitting the gypsea tent as I thought about how true this is. Your boat will tell you when she’s hurting, but can you hear what she’s saying? If you love the boat and sea you can. You will know when her shrouds are too loose or too tight depending on how the rigging sings with the wind, you will know when to reef or carry on depending on the sounds of the wind through the sails.

I realized it’s the same in relatioships as I thought about how many people I know that are going through divorces right now. I wonder if they heard this first rule, had there their spouses heard this first rule, would they still be going through what they are? Its hard to say. After all, I’m a sailor and I had marriages that failed.

I turned and looked down below, went down and got two glasses of rum. I climbed up on deck and sat leaning against the mast, I raised both glasses, made a toast to our safe voyage and Neptune’s approval, poured one glass over the gunwale into the water (a libation for King Neptune) and drank the other. I sat there just listening for a few more minuets before getting up. I went down and got two more glasses and resumed my position next to the mast, raised the glasses and made a toast to Emmanuelle, as I drank the mine, I poured the other on the deck slowly (a libation for Emmanuelle). All sailors are little superstitious, and even if they aren’t real, why risk it? So I hope my solitary ceremony is sufficient to please the King of the Sea, and Ruler of all in his Realm.

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