We are at Rhodes, the island of the knights! Rhodes is beautiful! Crete was amazing! Karpathos was incredible! I realized that I have been sharing with you all the “near miss”, completely scary and “almost disaster” days and although those times are very sensational and stand out in our minds when we relate our adventures, it is possible they give the impression that we are living in a series of calamities with an accidental but fortunate happy ending… A very dear friend from Toronto, commented on one of my posts that our adventures were deterring him from even considering sailing and that’s unfortunate and maybe my fault because I have been sharing all the thrilling-we are happy to be alive- sailing moments. So I think it’s time to set the record straight!
Yes, we encounter strong, unpredictable winds from time to time, and 3m waves when the swells should be 0,8m, but we have not lost a single sail, or a single crew member… yet! (all sailors are very superstitious since you get to depend on Natures’ whims and we have gradually joined the cult without even realizing it; so, we never boast about being alive, we are only happy and grateful!…just in case anyone is out there keeping track of what we let out in the universe and is ready to humble us with some spectacular weather phenomena that we’d prefer to read about instead of actually live through!).
Sure, we’ve dealt with all kinds of engine problems, mechanical issues, electrical failures and God knows what else (probably Jeff knows, since he has been trying to fix these things) but we have managed to always reach a port safely and then fix the problem in a matter of a few hours or a few days. The fortunate thing is that we know we are never in a hurry to get anywhere and we are creative in finding solutions.
However….there’s NOTHING that compares to the feeling of joy and freedom that you get when you wake up in the morning and the sea is calm and clear like a turquoise glass see-through cloak, the day is crisp and bright and you can dive right into this miracle of blue perfection that is the sea! You get amazed over and over again at the abundance of beautiful scenery, the endless variety of colors everywhere, in the sky, the land, the sea. You experience new feelings of exhilaration, gratitude, fulfilment, wonder, happiness. Your eyes, ears, nostrils, lips and fingertips compete to take in everything and flood your mind with multiple layers of wonderful sensations. You realize the limitations of the standard vocabulary of any given language and straggle for more and new words to describe the explosion of images, to communicate the feeling, to voice your thoughts.
I am sure there must be a reasonable scientific explanation for all of the above, probably things that have to do with hormones and endorphins and glands that produce and release all kinds of exotic substances creating chemical reactions that I perceive as the tangible taste of happiness at natures’ glory…BUT I choose to ignore any sensible explanation and immerse my being in the magic of the sailing life!
Adventures on Spruzzo 