Life has been busy. I go on standby on Thursday, so most of the activity at this stage should be directly related to getting my boat ready and provisioned – conducting sea trials, final testing of electronics and communications, checking off kit lists and preparing mentally for the challenges that lie ahead.
But instead I seem to have spent far too much time at my laptop, dealing with administrative stuff. Important, but unrewarding, and at this stage, increasingly hard to take seriously. If it is not going to help keep me alive and happy while at sea, it seems increasingly irrelevant.
Watching Row Hard, No Excuses for the second time on Friday night (at the Santa Cruz Film Festival), I was reminded how it feels to be at sea, when the things that seem so important on dry land fade into irrelevance, and life becomes amazing in its simplicity. Food, water, sleep – and weather. These, and these alone, are the focus of life on the ocean.
Or maybe one other thing too – my daily blog. Because for me, my adventure is meaningless if I don’t share it via my website. I know there are people who would love to be doing what I am doing but for various reasons they can’t.
And there are other (in my view, much more sensible) people who would never in a million years think about rowing an ocean, but enjoy watching somebody else go through it, happy to be armchair adventurers.
My mother is one of the latter. She is with me now, helping with final preparations. She sent me an e-card today, which although very cute, was almost painful to watch. Let’s hope I don’t have to resort to harnessing seagulls…
[Photo: Mum at the cottage in Woodside where I temporarily live]
P.S. Porridge situation now in hand, thanks to the power of the blog. Thanks to Ken for his help!