The Sail To Miami

We left Bimini early, and set sail for Miami. We had a nice southern wind around 10 knots, and were sailing along, sad to be leaving the Bahamas after such a nice trip. After an hour or so, the wind died, and so we had to motorsail. The seas were calm, and the gentle motion of the boat, and some Jimmy Buffett music made the trip a bit easier. The view down into the sea through the floor hatch changed from the aqua and turquoise Bahamas to the deep blue purple of the gulfstream. The sun was shining, and we put out our fishing line one last time for this trip. Life was pretty good, even if we were motorsailing. We thought about or great visit to the Bahamas, and how lucky we are to have some nice friends there, and how lucky we are to have the Bahamas so close. We explored the central and southern Bahamas, but still have a lot to explore next time in the Abacos. For now though, we are heading West, to Florida, and a return to work for a bit, so we can do this again soon. We were sad, our trip ending, much like a ten year old feels at the end of summer break. Back to school, back to the routine for a while, back to reality. So it was for us too, at least for a short while, the reality of bank accounts and budgets, and with the monetary needs for the upcoming fall sailing trip on our minds too.

As we sailed west toward Florida, we realized how our lives have changed. We no longer work to exist, as we have done our whole lives. We worked and worked, and never said no, never realizing that it is OK to slow down, to have a bit less, and really have so much more. As the Miami Beach skyline slowly started to appear on the horizon, it started to sink in that we were going back to that life, if for just a short while at a time. We are looking forward to working a while, and maybe attaining a new goal we have for our sailing adventures, we don't mind the work really. It is just that we look at the whole work thing as something that enables us to go do something else now, it does not define us. It used to, having good jobs and being the best at them, was who we are, or were. Now, not so much, we are still very good at our jobs, but, they are not who we are now. Not sure who we are actually, but we are not the corporate slave types that we were, that is for sure. We measure our worth a little differently, we have changed. We have more smiles, and less furrowed brows. We have more time, and less complications every day. We have less money, but have less obligations. We have adventures, not "day to day existence".

When I was a kid, not that long ago, things by today's standards, were a lot harder than today. When I used to tell my children that "Back in the Old Days", we didn't have color TV, or air conditioning. No internet, or microwave ovens. No cell phones or pagers. Cars didn't come with AC or even power steering for the most part, and they were stick shifts. You slept with the windows open at night, to get a breeze, and I grew up in Florida where it is plenty-o-hot in the summer. They would look at me in wonderment, and sometimes laugh out loud, like it is a true miracle that I somehow survived this ordeal, this oddysey. Things are so much easier now, and so why would anybody decide to leave it all behind and go risk it all at sea, and have to step back into a time where things are harder, more work, and less comfortable and safe? For us, it is the spirit of seeking our new things and people and places. Also, it is the feeling of accomplishment that you get when you complete something like a trip on a boat somewhere. We love it, and want more. I guess that is why people climb mountains, for the same reasons, not for me, but hey, I get it. So as Miami, and civilization as we know it came into focus, we again rejoin the system, the collective to borrow a phrase. We are going to plug back in and rejoin for a while. We have some breaks planned though, and we are looking forward to next fall, when the wind will again blow us somewhere new, somewhere we have not been before. We can't wait, I feel like starting to provision right now! And as if we needed a send-off, a topper for our Bahamas Trip Cake, we started catching Mahi on the way in to Miami. We boated a couple, although we didn't try to stay on them, as we pressed on to Miami and Coconut Grove. We grabbed our old slip before dark, and sat back with the satisfied smiles that a trip like we just had will bring. Man are we lucky!