Choices

May 25, 2020 · by · in Blog
I remember talking to “Pirate Bill”, retired Army major, rocket scientist, computer genius, charmer of the seas,  who I met after he bought a 1974 32 foot Westsail, named Galena and was heading out to sail around the world.
When I asked if that was safe, he told me about The Perfect Storm and how the Westsail made it through.
The movie took liberties with the real-life Bermuda-bound boat, a 32-foot Westsail cutter named Satori owned by a highly experienced sailor named Ray Leonard. Westsails are extremely seaworthy vessels, designed to survive in the heaviest of seas. Satori had already weathered one hurricane in her 17-year-life. The film implies that the Mistral aka Satori was lost in the storm. Not so. Two weeks after the real-life Andrea Gail went down, the abandoned Satori beached herself on Assateague Island. Her storm jib wasn’t even ripped. There was hardly a scratch on her.
I said,”I wish I could do that”.
He said, “you could, if you really wanted to”.
“We all do what we choose to do”.
The bottom line: We all have choices and each one we make narrows our next choice.
If we don’t like where we are in life, we are one decision away from pointing ourselves in a new direction.
Where we head towards, is where we will most likely arrive.
I have never made a “5 year” plan, but maybe I should have.
I might know where I would be in 5 years!!!:)
It’s been 10 years since I made that statement.
The closest I got to living the “sailing dream”, was onboard someone else’s boat.
The extent of my travels was the Chesapeake Bay.
However, I found that deep down, that was all I really wanted. I am a fair weather sailor.
I was not really prepared to own a boat of my own- not handy, mechanical or well-informed.
I was not ready for danger the magnitude of an ocean crossing. Did I mention, I don’t swim?
Imagination is a far cry from reality. My instructions were “Stay on the boat, Keep a sharp eye out and report all sightings”
Four times, I was highly afraid- 1. overnighting at the dock in Hurricane Sandy and felt every wind bouncing against the lines, 2. anchored in a heavy current with no lights in sight by a deserted island, 3. participating in the Governor’s Cup overnight race in a blinding rain when we passed a ship close enough to see the captain and first mate in the lighted cabin directly over my head calling desperately on the radio and sounding their horns, and 4. a strong summer storm came up while we were rafted up with one boat anchored, the wind was so strong it broke the lines and boats were crashing and beating against each other violently, but the captain had the boat running and cut the other line to pull away to anchor separately in the storm.
Of these frightening experiences I would call two – near death experiences. I seriously could have been sunk in the middle of the night by a freighter coming through their shipping channel with the right of way- in a blinding rain , pitch black dark night. I could have died if the two boats tied up together in a raft up- had not been separated by a skilled captain. Even he admitted- that we nearly died. He refused to do any more night sails and we never rafted up again with that group.