Seven thousand miles of outstanding cruising since November 2008 means it's time to do a little renovation and more planning for the future. Find out what ...
Now Mandy rests at anchor in Jackson Creek, a bucolic corner of the Northern neck of Virginia mostly serving as a playground for the well to do of Richmond who weekend here in waterfront cottages and on their racers and cruisers. We however cannot rest for we are committed to bringing Mandy back to top shape so that we can pass her on to her future owner in the condition that we have enjoyed her. The marina here is cruiser friendly so for a modest fee we avail ourselves of the showers, the laundry and the internet, the holy trinity of cruiser basic necessities. We will pause here a while for in addition to maintenance we also need to re-enter the job field, both short and long term. In a town of eight hundred and with only bicycles for transportation the short term options are limited, but Virginia is working at a local restaurant doing a bit of everything and made $14 dollars in tips the other night. I'm a kept man and getting to like it.
The difficulty of adjusting to a land and reality based life has long been noted and echoes of Moitissier and even Crowhurst reverberate through our less confident moments, but we always knew this was coming and having it pre-defined makes it manageable. So when it's all said and done what have we over and above a collection of great sunset photographs? We have been back in the States for a little more than a month and possibly the most startling observation is the staggering wealth displayed here. In Nicaragua we spent time and were helped by a lawyer and university professor, Ivan Aguilar, from one of Leon's foremost families. His hobby is deep sea fishing and to indulge it he keeps a practical twenty year old single engine sport fisher at his creek side "marina", a short jetty with an office/apartment fashioned from an old forty foot container on piles. Ivan is one of Nicaragua's privileged. Motoring north on the ICW from Charleston to Norfolk we passed countless hundreds of houses, each in excess of 6,000 square feet, enough for three families, with long complex finger piers housing brand new sport fishers that boast two or three monstrous outboard engines. These houses are not owned by the country's elite, but by plumbers, dry-wallers, steel workers and store owners. The owners of all these waterfront dwellings, right down to the smallest weekend cottage, spent a part of their Memorial Day holiday weekend driving around their lawns on ride-on mowers. In most of Central America it was common to see a man spend a few days bent over, cutting his grass with a machete. How did this disparity arise? We are not smarter, nor do we work harder. We certainly have more natural resources and, despite their inadequacies, we have better institutions, less bent on exploiting individual citizens. Nevertheless I can't help thinking that the vast reserve of amassed capital wealth is a legacy from an era when perhaps we did worker harder and smarter. Have we done our best to preserve that legacy or are we in the midst of squandering it? In Charleston I broke a small threaded rod that serves as the locking mechanism for my folding bicycle. Upon arrival in Deltaville I asked at the boatyard if there was a machine shop close by to weld it. On inspecting the little bolt, the yard foreman suggested, straight faced with no hint of irony, I buy a new bike, it would be cheaper! Are we completely mad? In Mexico, Nicaragua and Cuba this bike had been coveted and if there now, at no great expense aside from care, would be kept in good working order for the next twenty years.
There have been so many thrills and deeply satisfying experiences in this trip that it is hard to distill the essence. As I crouch on the side deck rebedding a cap-rail I am watching Bernard and Elian, 27 year cruising veterans , getting ready to sail back to France. Quietly, methodically, without the need of much talk, they go through a many times rehearsed protocol of preparation. It takes more than a day but as they draw closer to a departure time they exude a simple confidence in their boat, their skills, their ability to exert control over almost anything that may occur. To a small degree we have done this also and watching them I am envious, for within these parameters you know that you come close to self reliance. Within a contemporary "in the system" life this is impossible. There is so much beyond our control, dependant as we are on entities too large to relate to and too complicated to comprehend. It is empowering to immerse oneself in a life where preparation, experience, attention to detail and a modicum of luck define completely the outcome of choices you make.
This blog was started as a way to keep family and friends appraised of our travels and we have been fortunate to gather a fair readership with more than one hundred and fifty visits most weeks. The vitality of the comments and other communications has made the whole exercise most enjoyable. We have been encouraged to attempt to use the blog as a basis for a book and may succumb to that vanity if we can gain a clear vision of a narrative structure that might help avoid the final iteration being grossly dull. To find a publisher the blog readership is an asset, but since no one wants to read of our trials and tribulations in Deltaville we must now bring this to a close. A mailing list of readers would be something concrete so if you have even a slightest interest in a book (or if you don't) please send us a contact e-mail (to richardcross686@gmail.com) which we promise to use only to harass you in the future to buy our tome. Any comments and suggestions would also be welcome and listened to.
By making the leap and getting out there we have come to better realize, mostly through the repeated kindness of strangers, that no matter where you are, the world is full of modest strong people doing their best for families and friends. The realization has been heartwarming.
Having spent 30 years in the racehorse business we felt it was time for a different kind of adventure.
Both originally from England we have sailed for fun for over 30 years. We have owned MANDY for five of those and are planning to head south for Mexico etc. in November 2008 - ready or not. [...]
When we get to Panama we will decide which way to turn; through the canal or across the big puddle. The eventual goal, whether by boat or not, is Galicia in north-west Spain where we have a ruined farm cottage and barn (pictures in the galleries) that we plan to restore.
We love our 3 grown children and our parents but this window of time is reserved just for us. It has been a long time coming. World economy sucks. So what?