When I tell my friends that we plan to sail from Central America across to the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, and explain to them the distances and time it takes to sail there in a small boat they ask aren’t you nervous, or, aren’t you scared? I always replied not yet. We received an e mail from our friends Tom and Rita. Rita doesn’t sail but Tom has been with us a few times, including time in the Bahamas when we were there. Tom had entered our current position into Google Earth, zoomed out to see the tiny spec of the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia which we plan to visit, and then wrote us “all I can say is COME HOME NOW”
When talking to other boaters about leaving they ask when do you think you will be ready to go? The reply “are you ever ready” brings an understanding laughter of agreement. You are never “ready”. The boat projects are never done. The best you can be is better than yesterday. Finally it comes time to move on. The boat is ready enough and you r confidence in it has improved. Your psychic has changed to acceptance and readiness. The seasonal weather has changed for the better, you have to leave.
We are fully provisioned, food, medical supplies, fuel, spare parts. Not everything we can think of but all we can fit on board and then some. We have left Panama City and are in the Las Pearlas Islands, the last bit of land we can hold on to. Some boaters we have met before are here getting ready to head out, as well as some others moving on too. Our friends on PEKING and SIGA SIGA have arrived to stage for their voyages to Ecuador and we will spend the next week with them in the anchorages here. The bonds with friends you make cruising share with you the laughter and also the like mindedness of a group of people interested in similar things and goals. But we are all going somewhere. We all know our friendships will last longer than our times together.
Soon it will be our time to go. The thought lurks in the back of our minds and surfaces occasionally, little by little readying us for our departure. Randy