Pursuit

It feels strange being in a marina again, knowing that we will be here for at least 5-6 months before setting off again. I am already beginning to miss the adventure though. I start to think about what I am going to do while I am here. As always, I have a few projects that I want to do, and I am planning on flying back to Canada for a month in December, plus we are planning on some inland traveling, so time will fly by I'm sure. This is the first time I have had to wait in a marina for the storm season to pass since I was in Puerto Vallarta back in '08. It is nice to be attached to land again though. All the water, electricity and access to stores we could possibly want.

We have sailed over 10,000 miles since leaving Panama in January and sitting here I start to reflect back on what I'm doing, where I've been and what I have learned. It has been an adventure to say the least. Especially when I look back to the very beginning. Before I had bought Pursuit, I had never been on a sailboat, hell, I hadn't even been on the ocean and here I am now, circumnavigating the globe. I remember all the things I didn't know back then. I certainly didn't know much, but one thing I did know was; I needed a change. I wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Up to that point I only knew one way. Full out! Working for the bigger house, better car and the endless loop of repeating the same day over and over again. I was always chasing after things that I didn't have and things that I thought I needed. Destined to be unhappy. I decided to sell it all, buy a boat, and just go for it. I remember stepping off the bus in the small, Mexican desert town of San Carlos in order to look at a boat that I saw online. It was an adventure in itself just getting there. It was exciting and it was what I needed. I almost didn't care if the adventure went any farther than that at that moment. Before that trip I would always have booked an all-inclusive travel package at a resort, with meals, hotel and transportation included, complete with an English speaking staff and way too much luggage. That was how I liked to travel. It was within my comfort-zone. But now I had just flown to Hermosillo, taken a bus to Guaymas and then a taxi to San Carlos, just to look at a boat. I may not even like the boat after seeing it. I was in the unknown and it felt good. I stepped out of the taxi, with just a small backpack containing a couple of changes of underwear and not much more, in a town that had no resorts, and where hardly anyone else spoke English. I found a little cabina where I could stay for the night. After settling into my room, I turned on the TV. There were three stations on and they were all in Spanish. It was a restless night. I wondered, "What am I doing?"

The next morning I called the broker, who was selling the boat, and he picked me up. We drove out to see the boat in the marina's storage yard. It was in what was un-affectionately know as the "Field of Broken Dreams". There were so many boats there. Sailed there from so many different destinations around the world and then just pulled out of the water and left in the hot, dusty desert. Some were for sale; some were waiting for the next season and some were just forgotten about. As we pulled up to the sailboat, I remember a feeling of excitement overcome me. I could see myself on this boat. Starting my new life on it. Pursuit was her name and she had sat on the hard, in the desert, for the last three years, waiting for me to bring her back to life, and for her to safely guide me through my new one. I know it sounds weird, but it felt that way then and it still does today. She had suffered from the relentless sun. The canvas was gone, the paint all faded and most seals had dried out. She looked rough, but I saw past it. I knew there was a beautiful boat underneath. I was lost in the thoughts of what could be. In my mind I bought Pursuit then and there. Making an offer and the rest was just a technicality at that point. It was where I wanted to be. Jimmy Dean (yah, the "Sausage Guy", but he was also an American country music singer, television host and actor as well) once said, "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."



So at that point I adjusted my sails. Although, at the time it felt as though I may have accidentally jibbed. Rudy and Steve, my two good friends from Canada, joined me in the beginning and I am always thankful for their support. It was a scary time for me, I had left it all behind and they helped me in the transition from land to sea. We had a lot of good times. I remember us getting sailing lessons in the beginning from an old salt in San Carlos. After the third time out he just said, "You're on your own boys. All you need now is to just put in the sea time." Life is just like sea time. It is just another term for learning the hard way through experience. It was trial and error. Back then I thought that the sails had to either be all the way in or all the way out. It kind of made for some crazy moments, when the winds would pick up, the lee rails would be awash and we would have all the sails out. We would frantically be turning into the wind to pull in the sails, not even knowing they could easily furl in without turning into wind. I could write pages and pages about all the dumb things I thought sailing was back then, plus it is entertaining as hell when I get together with other sailors, and tell them my stories of what I thought when I first started out. I think back now on how little I knew and just shake my head. But that is normal. It is to be expected. How can everything be known about something new? It has to be learned, experienced and the thought of something new has to be embraced, not feared. It was kind of how I felt I was living my life before. I thought that was how it was meant to be and the thought of change was intimidating.

Now I realize that sails, just like life, can be reefed, furled and trimmed. We just have to grab the sheets (the ropes that control the sails for all you land lubbers out there) and do it.