Stuck?

Scott says...

Ah, sailing…or NOT! After a wonderful 18 hour sail/motor to Marco Island we have been stuck for the past 4 days. From here you have to sail to the NW to make it around Sanibel Island and, sure enough, the wind has been exactly NW ever since. We tried to get out yesterday and the 3-4 foot waves coupled with the wind being right on our nose sent us back to our anchorage. I know, why not just be a sailor and tack back and forth in to this wind. We could but…we choose not to! With an open ended schedule like ours we can choose our days. This boat is not very weatherly (doesn’t sail very close to the wind) as we have known all along. You sail this boat ‘full and by’ as they say. I wonder what that means? I think it means you’re looking to go on reaches but not beat hard to the wind to actually get anywhere. So another day on the anchor today…gets a little hard after spending more than a month in Key West. I’m really itching to travel again. But there’s books and boat projects…and books.

I like to keep a cheap trashy novel around. A page turner hopefully about serial killers or vampires or, if possible, both. With that I also like to have something of quality working. I’ve recently finished ‘Godel, Esher, Bach’ by Douglas Hofstader - a book I’ve tried to read ever since I bought it in 1979! I’d tell you what it’s about but I’m still not sure. Maybe artificial intelligence. Maybe Godel’s imcompleteness theorm. Both? It is not an easy read but it certainly got my attention! Now I’m reading ‘Breaking the Spell’ by Daniel Dennett. In this book he asks the question, “Why are we so committed to religion on this planet? To what gain? Is it really good for us?” Big questions like that. Interesting. He makes the point that no matter to what religious belief you adhere (94% of the planet believes in something) your religion is a minority. How do people stick with the idea that THEY and THEIR religion is THE one in the face of that sort of thing? Things like that have also puzzled me and so I find this book very interesting. Dennett is a smart guy and although an atheist does not attack religion (although a theist reading this book may feel attacked he’s really just asking reasonable questions) but asks questions about how things got this way. I highly recommend it especially for the religious among you. He is pretty much preaching to the choir with me to use a backwards metaphor!

Boat projects. You know, I’m more fond of saying that there is always something to work on than I am actually working on it! Something about the sun, blue sky, gently rocking of the boat, and music that doesn’t make me want to jump up and crawl around in the engine room! Maybe I’ll attack some more of the bright work…that is ALWAYS there for me.

Sue says……

Stuck? What’s stuck? I’m not stuck. Why would I feel stuck? I suppose one could say I’m ‘stuck’ with the captain, with this boat, with this cat, with this weather, with this place (Marco Polo Island). But I actually don’t feel stuck. I chose to be with all of the above except of course for the weather. I can’t choose the weather. Weather happens. What I can do is choose when to sail in it and when not to. I like having that choice.

We’ve been here since Monday late afternoon and originally planned to leave the next day. What have I done in the meantime? Lots of soduko. Lots of reading (currently “The Plot Against America” by Phillip Roth). Lots of looking and photo taking. I’m still on the mission to get a video of dolphins. There are plenty of them here. Some boat projects such as cleaning, groceries, laundry. It was kind of fun washing clothes in the rain water we collected. The clothes dried quickly in the brisk NW wind and the bright sunshine. I just like living on my boat, breathing the fresh air, traveling to new places, meeting new people, and having good conversations and fun times with the captain. So I don’t feel stuck.

Gracie says...
Hey, it's all the same to me. Get up, eat, poop, sleep. Stuck? Yeah, I'm stuck. I'm stuck with these two losers who think they're Captain Blood and Maureen O'hara! Yawn...time for another nap!