Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Battle with the Boat

Well, Im about to start placing orders for parts today so I can start getting everything repaired. I have to replace the sheeves at the top of the mast after I broke one and Im doing them all out of a strong desire to not have my halyards (ropes that raise and lower the sails) get caught in the top of the mast again. Its going to to be fun I can say that much. The haul out is scheduled for the last week of march but it might get bumped, we will see.

Work has been a blast. Im still fighting my way through BDD and its just driving me nuts at the moment. Its hard to dedicate a lot of time to it when your manning the help desk as well. I keep getting stop 7B errors which I believe are directly related to HAL incompatibility issues. Hehe, tech talk, sorry.

So for a response to the comment left to my last post, I will delve a little into the "alternative forms of living" question that was asked.

I have been fighting and analyzing the idea of what we do with our lives for the past few years. The whole shebang, Buy a house, buy a car, get married, have kids, pray they do something great, and move on. I believe that there are alternatives to this and avoiding this path is not necesarily a bad thing. After all, it is my life right? I look at many things that are happening in our world. Pollution, Blind consumerism, capitalism, neopolitical movements, globalization and I realize that the innocence of the world is gone or fading very rapidly. We now have access to almost any part of the world, instantly at our fingertips. Almost everyday, weird and obscure languages, perhaps once part of a beautiful and flourishing culture, are dying in favor of the international business language of english. Afterall, to rise from what is considered "poverty", you must beable to speak english to do foriegn business. To hang on to ones roots and cultures is almost a death wish for some peoples.

I try and live on the minimums. At times, I could do a lot better, I think everyone could, but trust me, I dont have a lot. I dont have an iPod, no gaming systems, no new car, no fancy cell phone, none of that mess. My dreams and desires have me living on the minimums, living life and seeing the joys that life and actions, not objects can bring me. Some people relate this to being very religious but thats not my case. I have an understanding that material objects end up in a dump and thats all they do. I have my material comforts, dont get me wrong, but Im very picky when I buy one, I make sure I can maxamize its usage. I traveled through Mexico and Guatemala for 2.5 months, 73 days with a friend, my car, our surfboards, and a tent. We slept in the dirt, in the car, in the tent, often covered in sweat for almost the entire duration. In 73 days of traveling, we slept in a room of some sort for only 10 days. We lived on street tacos, PP&J, cans of tuna, and ramen noodles. We ate good when we wanted to, but we enjoyed our basic foods almost as much so we decided to stick with the basics. We lived among the people and got to know them very well. I found this to be an amazing experience and it has completely changed my ideas about "travel" and "vacations". In Guatemala, we would watch tour buses full of rich Americans come through town as they "window watched", rolling slowly down the streets. They dare not leave the safety and comfort of their airconditioned bus, these Gautemalan's would surely murder them for their money. Its true, I was a victom of an attempted robbery; half of it my fault. I should not have slept there, lying prone under a palapa next to a fire. I should have slept with my machete as I always did, but I chose not to. Perhaps God was teaching me a lesson in faith and just how fragile our bodies are, and how quickly life can be taken from us. That robbery, the stabbing, the punk that got away before Joe could take an arm from him with the machete didnt change a thing about my view on people from other countries, especially Mexico.

My ideas of living now are changing a little. More and more news has come out that supports my idea of living to the max. I believe we as humans have had our time here, but we have betrayed our planet enough and the repercussions arent too far off. Im not talking about Global Warming or any of that political hype crap. I believe we might see a complete ecosystem collapse within our lifetimes if we continue at our rate. Im looking more and more into living "off the grid" and just trying to enjoy whats left of our beautiful world. Sailing is showing me how possible this is. Im working on my next trip, the drawing boards are up, the plans are rolling. Where I will sleep, eat, and visit; Im not sure. However, I do know that it will be an epic trip, either by sail or by van. Im planning at least Mexico, all of Central America, and possibly shipping the car/sailing into south America and exploring through there, especially Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. My strive to see the world, to surf, to live my life not confined to an office is still strong. My spirit has not been crushed while I am doing my time in the 9-5, or 8-6 in this case. It is providing a means to put some long terms plans together for the ultimate escape. My head is still above the water.

Ill post some more pictures of sailing soon.

2 comments:

aWe said...

Thanks for the following up. It's actually pretty funny because it so happens I have recently enter a similar phase of my life. Nothing as drastic as yours and I'm not sleeping on the ground in some unpronouncable town in Mexico. I'll give up the tv but don't touch my gaming computer/monitor.

It may just be an age thing because I'm calling it downsizing. now that there are no kids. I went from a 2,700 sq foot house in the city to a little 900 sq foot house on a little lake. I refuse to use regular light bulbs. I recycle paper and plastic (never had before). I start composting, brought front loading washing machine, replaced windows with energy efficient, etc. I'm wanting chickens for eggs but the dh (darling husband) refuses any new animals. I brng my lunch to work every day and try to only eat out 1 time during the weekend.

BTW - Checkout Body For Life program.

LIfe, it's an on-going process.

http://www.myspace.com/texas_awe

http://www.wentfishingtexas.com/

Anonymous said...

I'm really proud that u finally got a real good job, and I'm even more proud that u got it to make ur dreams come true.
But I do think u're wrong about something.
I was having a conversation with u recently where I told u how much material stuff changed me and how important It was to me at some point of my life money and classy shit and stuff...
But then I realize that It's not about money.
Neither about giving it up.
At the end of ur life u may find urself wondering how much u gave up to please urself or how much u didn't to please urself as well..
It doesn't matters how much u have or how much u don't, what u do in your life can be echoes in eternity if u give other ppl that don't have what u do, It could be material or it could be a nice conversation.
Remember as well that giving up material things can be as reconforting as having them, what matters are the intentions and that u do something most of the people don't, share and learn to live this way without feeling u're loosing. Having or not having, any of those could be a win win situation, at the end It's all about love right? Loving u and the ppl around u....
And about the thing of buying a house, getting married and having a dog or whatever, I soooo don't agree with that... marriage is not about being tied, It's a whole new travel.... and I really think u should seriously stop fighting that cause there's nothing to fight, u're still really really young... u still need to sail with me if the weather's cool.
Love. =)