An Adventurer? Me?
06 July 2012 | Batemans Bay
Sue Watt
Standing on deck doing a load of washing this morning in the crisp early morning, with possibly the best view that I have ever had from any laundry, I was wondering what other people must think when they see me standing there, loading and unloading from my twin tub and then hanging washing from the rigging!
I suppose people must think me quite the adventurer!
I snigger to myself 'cos I feel far from that!
I don't think I could ever have imagined this life. If I had been able to take a sneak peak into my future I'm sure I would have thought I'd happened on a crossed line - surely this could not be in my future!
We had the pleasure of a visit from my blossom this week - 20 year old Sarah, the first member of my family to attend university. A keen photographer and artist, Sarah truly has blossomed into a delightful, insightful and intelligent young woman. The week before I had Daniel, my eldest, down - top barista working in a couple of café's in Canberra (Red Brick in Curtin and Beppes in Belconnen markets) - an amazing coffee artist! They both brought news of the younger boys doing well in their studies. Before Daniel we had Joshua here playing his incredible guitar music at a local event and in between heard that my eldest daughter had received a huge bonus at work because of her amazing work ethic. I'm such a proud mother - despite the usual hic-cups of growing up and the added hic-cups of having had to grow past some particular difficulties - seeing my children mature is something like watching with the sun rise each morning on a new day. It fills me with awe and thanks. Yes, being in the Bay has afforded me many joys!
A drama unfolded before our eyes this week as an inexperienced and under-prepared sailor ventured out in an ill-equipped yacht with his wife and two cats. She had not been to sea before. Goodness only knows what it was like for them out there, but we were not at all surprised to hear that only a few hours into their journey they had been advised by Sea Rescue to head into Ulladulla Harbour - nor surprised to hear that they had decided to turn back and return to the Bay instead, despite the wind direction not being in favour of sailing back.
This fellow has in turns amused and horrified us over the past little while. He has bought a boat that is barely afloat. He has no experience. He didn't even know which ropes were for what when he first set off! One day we watched as he motored up the river and then experienced engine failure. He had no dinghy so couldn't get off his boat to go for help. He had no radio or apparently, mobile phone. So, in the middle of the Clyde River, right in town, he set off a flare! It was both amusing and terrible! What a spectacle!
On his return from his adventure this week he tied his boat up so badly on the town jetty that it is now even more badly damaged than it was before he left.
We don't take delight in his struggles. Rather it reminds us that the sea is to be respected. It is foolhardy to head out unprepared, and ill-equipped. In the time since we arrived in Batemans Bay we have busied ourselves constantly with preparing for our next journey. We did pretty well in Albany as far as getting ready to leave is concerned, and yet there were still things we didn't know we needed until we needed them! We had all sorts of communications but still a satellite phone would have been great. We had power but still a generator would have been great. We had spare sails, but still the means to fix them would have been great.
These days we are so much better equipped than before and I think that it is important to be as well-equipped as possible. Not in a silly way - we heard of people having a defibulator on board for example - now to me that's going one step too far! But to me the point is to take all reasonable precautions and be as prepared for problems as possible - after all murpheys law tells me that anything I am not prepared for might happen but if I am prepared it might not!
Am I an adventurer? It doesn't feel to me as though this easy, simpler life is so very adventurous but then I have grown in to it I suppose! Sometimes I stop and look at our lives from other's perspectives and I suppose, yes, I have become a little more adventurous than I would have ever imagined myself being!