Adventures of s/v WILD HAIR

ADVENTURES OF WILD HAIR

Our land life took on form, solidity, routine. We had mastery of a limited set of skills. We had habitual expectations of others and ourselves. Going sailing, we let go of our attachments to our roles, views, and rituals. We persist because we are growing in this shapeless and dynamic world.



Sunday, July 24, 2011

Our Last Night in Grenada


We hear spring has arrived in Madison: 82 degrees, greening grass, and budding bushes. Here, we are melting. It is greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade below decks. The humidity exceeds 70%. We live in our swim trunks/bikinis. (Poor kitten Dinghy in her fur coat). She moves very slowly in the heat of the day. I sometimes check her pulse. But, she specializes in sleeping in the smallest, coolest places aboard WILD HAIR--like on top of the freezer lid or in the shady spot beneath the forward breezy hatch. When the sun retreats in the evenings, the night turns delicious. The cool air settles upon us. It is heavenly.

It is the end of the sailing season for us. I am exhausted by the last four days spent decommissioning the boat. I used a tank of oxygen to scrape barnacles from the hull.
The boat looks disturbingly naked as Dave and I removed the sails from the mast and forward stay. We polished every inch of the vessel—inside and out. Memories of a bag of onions forgotten at the end of one season haunted me as I scoured the boat removing perishables. Anticipating hurricane force winds, we removed from the deck every line, fender, and cushion that could conceivably take flight. Stowing these items below erased the livable space available to us.

Now, the boat sits on a frame ashore; heavy-duty straps attached to screws nestled deeply into the soil, pull the hull down onto the frame. In this configuration, we live on land 15 feet in the air. The boat feels oddly like a tree house. At one point, a Brit borrows our latter for his own use and we are stranded. A damsel in distress, I “you-hoo” a Grenadian boatyard worker for assistance.

It’s time to go home to Madison, Wisconsin.

2 comments:

Mark and Janet said...

My husband and I just read your article in cruising world magazine and loved it. We just finished our jobs and are about to embark on a world circumnavigation. On our list of things to do is to study Buddism. Would you mind recommending some books? We just set up our blog at www.sailingatlast.blogspot.com. Could you leave the info there?
Thanks!!

stillhowlyn said...

Sorry to eavesdrop but I thought I would share one of our favorite books on Buddhism: Awakening the Buddha Within, by Lama Surya Das. Look forward to Wild Hair's winter adventures!