21 September: In the Wrong Box?
- Oh! Another one filled with shoes! Were these really ours as well? Didn’t we just open a box of shoes the other day?
I left the shoes to themselves and continued with another box, instead. I wondered what treasures were buried in this one? More clothes! I closed it quickly again, wondering where to put them all. Our new flat was, of course, considerably larger than our boat, but with all these boxes originating from our old house, Regina seemed at least just as spacious.
I moved over to an equally packed corner of our flat. Possibly I could find some more interesting items over there in those boxes, who knows? I found one box filled with cables, one with videotapes, one with lamps, more gimmicks and loads of files. The files were filled with paper, loads of paper. Most of them looked as exciting as invoices.
Slowly, we began to remember how important all these things once had been for us before we went cruising. I remembered my fear of missing all of these things while sailing. Strangely enough, they felt more like an encumbrance now. Why had we needed so many items?
Having worn shorts and T-shirts for a year, heavy winter clothes looked awkward as they sneered at me out of the box. I had the feeling, however, that, one day, they would become very useful and appreciated again.
And this ugly big grey TV, who had been missing it? Nothing could compare with our open-air DVD-Laptop nights we had shared with our cruising friends. Suddenly, the picture became visible of us joining together in a cozy cockpit surrounded by tropical stars in a calm anchorage, sharing a bottle of wine, watching a good movie together.
Instead of collecting possessions, time for each other and time for adventure had become far more valuable for us. Time, – a commodity many people seem to lack these days, living in a modern society. I recalled the “Time Management” courses I had participated in, and smiled. What were they compared to real life found through Caribbean time management: “Island Time”!?
Compared to “Island Time”, everything suddenly moves so fast again. The most frightening fact is that we were so easily drawn into the system and it did not take long, until we were part of the modern time-lacking and money-making community again.
Leaving “Island Time” behind, we accelerated back into a multi-tasking environment. It has became difficult to stand still, to pause, or just to think over a situation before action is expected. So many things have to be organized, so many tasks have to be undertaken. Simultaneously!
Somehow, we managed, and it didn’t take long until we also began to enjoy the various luxuries life ashore had to offer. Our 14 months of cruising started to diffuse from reality into memory. Had our cruising year at all taken place or had it just been a dream?
I looked at my treasures from the past. Since I last had them in my hands, we had become experienced sailors ourselves and I could just smile and nod my head in approval when browsing through the bundle. Yes, this was how it had been, this was what we had experienced, too. This had been our life. This was no fiction, it was as real as all the boxes.
And now? Do we feel boxed in? Is it all over?
We decided, it was not. We said we had just opened a new chapter in our lives, and every step should be given its own time and right. We just didn’t know for sure, yet, what this new chapter would contain. It had become an adventure on its own!
I put the cruising files into a close-by bookshelf. Maybe they could become useful once more, I consoled myself, knowing too well that we would be settled ashore for at least as long as our children go to school.
At the same time, it was also fun to move house and start something totally new again. We suddenly regarded life ashore with fresh eyes and we began to enjoy living in abundance and luxury, as we considered it.
Every morning, when Jessica and Jonathan happily scamper away to school, I find it a luxury. With gratitude, appreciating and high respect we hand them over to professional teachers. I wonder how many families really understand how fortunate they are to have a school to go to. Not that I do not like teaching as such, I love the frequent fruitful discussions we have with our children when they are in the mood for learning. It’s the motivating part, to get them to work every morning, five days a week, that became a challenge sometimes, especially when you share the roll of being a parent with the one of a teacher.
Jessica and Jonathan love their new school and, I am proud to say, they had no difficulties whatsoever to re-enter school after one year of home schooling. Actually, they are even quite a bit ahead of their schoolmates, not only in obvious subjects such as English. Somehow, despite our many negotiations during school hours, it seemed to have worked to do home schooling for a year. So, dear blue-water-dreamer with children, don’t blame your hesitation on your kids! Don’t postpone your cruising adventures, just because of your children! Just be prepared that home schooling will become your new occupation, so it’s just as well that you give up this idea to learn playing the guitar while sailing or to sit in the cockpit reading all morning!
I bet most people living normal lives ashore are not aware what luxury it actually is to go shopping and how easily food is getting into your huge kitchen refrigerator. Just take the fact how easy it is to get “ashore”, you just walk out of the door, avoiding the initial wet dinghy ride. Once you are in a “shopping center” you can buy literally anything starting from fresh food to hardware in any desirable quantity! You load as much as you need into your cart and push it directly to your waiting car, not needing to worry about carrying it all back to the boat in your backpack. Instead, you drive home and unload it all directly into your kitchen, without even checking the items first by removing all paper and cardboard to make sure you don’t bring any cockroaches into your home. You open the huge front-loaded fridge and just place all groceries neatly on various shelves, instead of standing bended over the top-loaded boat-fridge, having to take everything out before getting anything in.
And then, how easily people are getting rid of waste! Having learnt how much one can reduce rubbish, it still feels strange to just throw everything into various big containers. Later, a “garbage man” comes and takes care of your waste, transporting it somewhere else – out of sight and responsibility for the household. I wonder where it all goes?
The indefinite amount of fresh water is another treat we have difficulties in getting accustomed to. We enjoy the lengthy showers without having to worry about the water level in our tanks. The water just comes out of the wall. The same applies for electrical power. As long as we pay for it, we may keep on as many lights as we please, more power is continuously supplied through the wall. Laundry facilities are reached without even having to go outside and a dishwasher is doing the job much better and more quietly than we can.
What a comfortable life!
Still, people do not seem to be happy and satisfied. Is it just because of the lacking time factor?
Too well, I still remembered my own muttering around, not being satisfied with my life. I recalled having reached a point in life, when every day of the week felt like Monday morning. We had found a track, which did not seem to lead anywhere particular. Just straight on.
- “Ha!”, I laughed out at this thought.
Karolina looked at me wondering what was going on in my head. “Remember how difficult we felt it was to actually take the decision to ‘give up everything’ and go cruising?”, I continued my own thoughts loudly.
Karolina laughed as well. “Yes, that is true! And now we are already back again! But next time, we know how doable it is to actually get away. One just needs the courage to let go the mooring lines!”.
She was right. Both literally and spiritually. The actual decision to go cruising had been the single most difficult part during our entire sailing adventure. Why? We had been afraid of change, of course. We were questioning the appeal for the children. We didn’t want to leave family and friends. We were worried about our economical situation. And, we were questioned by others.
The knowledge, how easy it actually was to change lifestyle – in both directions – gives us today a feeling of freedom. We hence regard our current shore-life with all its possibilities and luxuries as an opportunity. We know, should we, once again, wish to find a life-style beyond highways, shopping malls and dishwashers, the mental step would easily be overcome.
Of course, we are missing the cruising life-style.If we were totally honest, we would rather still be out there right now! It did hurt somewhat when we thought about the fact that right at this very moment, new cruisers were on their way to the Canaries for their first Atlantic crossing, just as we had been a year earlier. We wondered if these new families and couples were having the same wonderful time as we had? Who were they? Had they found each other, yet? A feeling of emptiness was filling our hearts, when we realized that we were not part of it all and would never get to know these wonderful new cruising people!
I went back to my cruising files and picked out an old blue water sailing magazine. I had read it many times before. It was still as wonderful but, at the same time, it showed a new perspective. Instead of being a magazine of dreams it was a publication of reality.
We know now that the publications are writing about a real world and we know we can become part of it again.
Some day!
.
