We had read for years that you are who you are and just because you’ve decided to go cruising don’t expect to radically change your habits. You are going to want to do what you like to do even though you’re now living the “life aquatic”.
We’ve always led a fairly frugal life so we expected few problems adjusting to our new life style. One of our known areas of…adjustment is our apparent habitual need to be plugged into the Internet, more or less continuously. In this I am not without guilt but I also really enjoy relaxing in front of a television set. We don’t have cable and even if we did, the power the TV would use could well be prohibitive. In sunny climes we don’t need to run the genset but we sure do up here. Occasionally we try the TV just using the onboard antenna but there isn’t much available without cable or satellite.
All of this can lead to a need to get off the boat, even in bad weather. Yesterday we picked up our friend Alan for a grocery run and as we approached the dinghy dock we realized that the storm that had been raging around us for days, had blown several feet of water into Oriental and was now covering the dinghy dock which would require an “en pointe” trip down the dock to land. So with wet feet we squished our way about a mile to the Town and Country market. Of course while shopping it began to rain. As we stood outside looking at the sky for a break in the clouds a woman gestured toward her car. “Can i give you a lift?” Why yes! Nice place, Oriental.
No trip into town is complete without a stop at “The Bean” for coffee, local news, and to complain about the weather. This is what we found.
While sipping our joe we actually saw a cormorant swimming down the street. Really.
On a better day you can see Escape Velocity out in the anchorage and the dinghy dock not under water.
This is my adjustment to one of my great passions. Watching Formula One races.
It looks like this.
Not the same!
Realizing that this Sunday’s F1 race was the inaugural US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, I began to lay pipe to secure a TV that would let me watch the race on Sunday. The Toucan Grill, not 500′ from EV said sure. So come hell or high water, Alan and I had a plan.
I picked up Alan and fighting 25 kts of wind, rain, and submerged docks, we saw a great race.
It’s a tradition. And I’m not giving it up.
