About hot weather: I’ve gotten used to being bathed in sweat at the smallest expenditure of effort. So i keep a washcloth or small towel nearby to mop myself off rather than leave puddles everywhere i go. Twice a day or more i take a cold shower. If i keep air moving over the bed with a fan at night i don’t soak the sheets. The compressor for the fridge and freezer will also chill each stateroom with air conditioning, but i am saving that as a last resort or occasional treat. Hydrating has taken on new dimension here, inside and out.
Was testing systems in prep for departing Ixtapa. It was a bit of a wrestle to get the generator going again but it’s hummin’ now. Now that i have the fridge/freezer back on line, Akimbo’s electrical needs have increased – and it appears the inverter isn’t picking up the shorepower to recharge the batteries? Hmm. I’ll troubleshoot it when i’m tied up to a dock, it’s irrelevant underway. As many chores as i’ve been doing, everything should be more ready than ever. Now that we’re underway, there hasn’t been much wind at all. I’ve even lowered my “sanity barrier” to two knots minimum sailing speed, still three quarters of the time we’ve been motoring – ugh. The stop button doesn’t work on the engine, of a sudden. So i’ve rigged a string to the stop solenoid to stop the engine manually. “The list” never ends.
Our first night out i must have used something gone bad in the dinner i cooked up. I hate to waste food, even when it’s older. But i spent most of the next day sick. Weak, dizzy, achy, etc… Drank a lot of water and waited for it to pass (pun!). Modest meals and more rest, i’m back to feelin’ fine the next day. Between motoring and attempts to sail, what to do with this calm sea? Shed my clothes and dive in!
There was a smallish whale that accompanied us late the second day out, quite close by, for about half an hour! (look for his/her back in the upper part of the photo that looks like it’s of water only). Our other companions are sea turtles and porpoise - launching themselves high on occasion (the porpoise, not the turtles – hard to tell in the photo). When daylight comes on, i often find a small squid or flying fish that landed on deck in the night and breathed its last. It seems too that there is more junk floatin’ by – plastic bottles, etc…
This stretch of the Mexican coast faces south. It looks very appealing, lots of beaches tucked in here and there tho they are pretty exposed. We ran over some sort of fishing line or net on a long string of floats. Somehow it didn’t catch on Akimbo’s rudder or propellor and floated free aft of us, stealing only my fishing lure. Over the rest of the day we dodged the next six or so such nets. They seem to run offshore as much as seven miles, so if you were staying ten miles off you should miss them with some margin.
75 hours after departing Ixtapa, we motored in to Marina Chahue. I hope to rest up, poke around, get our exit papers, fill fuel and get ready for crossing the infamous Gulf of Tehuantepec. Given its reputation, I drug the storm jib up to the top of the sail locker. I’m hoping i can stow the kayak inside to clear the decks – if i nest the bow of it onto the forward berth and fashion a sling to support where it passes thru the doorway, six and a half feet of it will protrude into the salon. I’ll have to crawl under it to go forward but hopefully won’t need to do much of that. Shall see.
As a cruiser i don’t tend to hang out in one place for long. And i use the motor more than i intend to. I guess i am too goal oriented. But i’ve found the same thing in climbing, hiking, skiing and bicycling – the speed of any endeavor decreases as the number of people in it increases. Traveling alone i don’t have to ask someone else what they want to do, where they want to go, etc…(which i am happy to do when company comes). That makes my own pace easy to find with little risk of mutiny or even grumbling. What a luxury! But there’s no one to turn to either and say, “look at that!” Am i getting my fill of alone, or am i getting used to it? It makes this adventure different from what i long ago dreamed it would be. While i deeply appreciate being able to manifest this trip, from that difference i begin to realize i will be done with this chapter sooner instead of later, tho i don’t know when. I wonder when i look back upon it what i will see. What do i want to see? How can i make it so?
In its way this trip is an extreme. Also in its way, falling in love, marrying, raising a son, buying a house, creating a home, supporting a family, having a career, becoming part of a community…step by step can also be an extreme, even if it is a cultural norm. I’ve traveled them both now. I’m free to not wonder about them. Free to live somewhere between them. So, what will i do instead? When neither commands my energy, will i feel extra energy? Where will i direct it? I hope to some kind of service. What could that be?
Dimension:
In a music appreciation class long ago, i remember a professor drawing a triangle on the blackboard. He gave each point of the triangle a name. “Composer.” “Performer/s.” “Audience.” He was saying something to the effect that each needed the other two. That there was no hope of creating or achieving a work of art without all three. I don’t know if i agree. But i think of those three points without lines between them. I imagine one of those points to be me. A single dimension. I imagine one of those points to be the earth and the life upon it which i witness. So i draw a line between these two points. Okay, we’ve moved into two dimensions now. That’s about the limit my experience can reach alone. Now, imagine the third point to be you. A witness with whom this experience can become shared. Without actually being here, and as friends more than as intimates, let’s imagine these dear added lines to be dashed (rather than solid and more than dotted). Voila! We have this “creative triangle” again. Still this wonder takes place in only two dimensions. Each point, the lines and the flat page itself that they are upon to be revered and appreciated. But now add a fourth point in mid-air above the triangle, creating an experience of three dimensions. Whoa! What would you name that fourth point?
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