So long and thanks for all the fish.

Well, the end is nigh. Rather, it’s back to the beginning.

It has been a great 2 weeks and I expect many more great days before I head her home. Wow. 2 weeks. A lot goes on in two weeks.

Thanks again for all of the well wishes and support. Feel free to email me, but don't be hurt if I take my sweet ass time returning them.

Pretty much packed, maybe a bit too much stuff. I wasn't really sure what to bring when I left and have 'donated' a bunch of clothes each time I repack my kit. If anyone gets to Lima or the islands and sees a guy running around in a blue long sleeved, Canadian flag, Modrobes shirt or a short sleeved Dex button up shirt (or six or eight other perfect specimens of my treasured wardrobe) then don't be surprised. Just appreciate the new Mike Reid Shabby Line for spring, "Imported Oldness, New for the Southern Hemisphere Hand-me-down Connoisseur. Guaranteed aged 5 years". How Chic. I am also sure that the garbage men of Pearson enjoyed my winter coat stuffed into one of those tiny little waste baskets. (You know the ones that look like they are designed for all of your cigarette pack disposal needs?). Too bad - I liked that coat. A great example of how my brain was operating at limited capacity in the 11th hour(s). Can you say the 11th hours? You can now. My little gift to the world.

Thanks also for the books and the recommendations for such things along the way:

Tahiti and French Polynesia - Thanks L.Planet
The Voice of Knowledge - Thanks Mom
The Brothers Karamazov - Thanks Luce
The Life of Pi - Thanks Denise
The Water In Between - Thanks Derek ("He feels compelled to sail to Tahiti to burn away his failings in hard miles at sea" A little bit dramatic, but I get your point. You think I'm a failure.)
Pale Blue Dot - Thanks Garth
Hunger - Thanks Bondy (so long ago!)

As it turns out, Elsie has 100 or so books on board, so if it is a reading vacation then I definitely won't run out of material. Although Walter raised a good point - it might make me sick reading at sea. We shall see. I will get through them by the end and I promise to put them ahead of the 10,000 or so pages on my "to read list" if I don't.

I am coming to realize that one of the side effects of my life and what I did back home was that it limited my imagination. I find myself dreaming again, both while awake and asleep. The first dreams in a long, long time.

In the last two weeks, I have solidified in my brain what it is that I am trying to accomplish. In the end game, I am not here to be here at all. A whirlwind tour of a couple of South American countries isn't what I signed up for. A sailing passage is what I signed up for, but in and of itself doesn't define anything either. I am here to learn two things: 1) how to relax again as I haven't truly been calm in 3 years and 2) to understand why it is that I do the things that I do. Understanding motivation is my first step to unraveling a very complex set of action and reactions that make me, well.. me.

My life was on tilt in a grand scale. It’s not like I have woken up this morning and decided it was level, it _has_ to still be off. Things like that don't go away over night. Saying things don't make them true, but practicing drinking things in at a slow pace and asking myself why I just did something is a step in the right direction for me. Not the over stimulation that I have always sought, but a different stimulation leading hopefully to perspective.

It is an odd ritual when people come in from sea and land dwellers crawl onto the bunk that they just left onboard. There is somewhat of a handoff and I feel like there is a secret handshake of sorts that I didn't remember seeing in the handbook, but have somehow gotten through. I asked Ian for some words of wisdom at sea and he said two things 1) laugh it off, no matter how bad things get and 2) It doesn't matter how frantic things are, or how hard you shove your way around, there are some things that you just can't do anything about. No matter how hard you try, you can't make the wind blow, or blow where you want it to. Sometimes the only thing that you can do is to wait for things to come to you. I think this trip will force feed me some patience and calmness that I have never before had (or make me go totally insane, my throat hoarse from screaming expletives at random sea birds - making this whole exercise just a ride in a boat). I've always thought of the word "inexorable" as one of my favourites and perhaps for the first time in life I am about to truly understand its meaning. We also talked about anchors in life (it’s surprising how many nautical sayings there are in our everyday vernacular when you pay attention) and how tough it is to either loose them or to let them go. Freedom is a derivative, but a consolation prize in some respects and useless without reflection.

This ocean passage is a long one, but benign by most standards. Just as well I guess, its time to take a load off and relax :)

Send positive vibes to Chris, Walter and Myself.

Peace.
Mike

P.S. if anyone happens to have contact or a long lost relative on the island of Maupiti that may want to teach me how to surf and let me sleep on their floor in exchange for menial labour, drop me a line ;) I’ll be the guy in a hammock around late June.

Turtle Leaping

I promised my friend Meghan that I would send pictures of me playing leap turtle with some of Galapagos finest. After finding a likely candidate, I realized how big these things were and got a bit sceptical. The first part would have been no problem, but the second leg could have been quite painful. She was so insistent on the joke, I wonder how much she actually likes me in the end. After passing on the first specimen I was able to witness it in action. It seemed to kind of get the game and looked like it was going to make it, but then stopped halfway. Perhaps it was just tired, as it seemed to be making an awful lot of grunting noises as it went along. Maybe its one more experience that I have missed on?

Those crazy Tortugas.

Also on my mini tour, I went through a lava tunnel, which was a 350 yard dash through dripping muck. Kind of geologically interesting, but I looked forward to the stairs out of there.

I continue to be burnt and the weather continues to be burning. Who knew?

Reminder

I was reminded yesterday of a lesson that came in two parts.

1. I met a woman on the boat who is from Florida. She is currently teaching English on the island for 3 months. We talked about the experience thus far and it came out that she is living in an apartment at the mayor's house. It was fun to hear the stories of the mayor as a human being and getting ready for his big birthday party that night.

2. Ian (who is crew that is exiting as I come on the boat) came hobbling around the corner with an obvious back in distress. I asked him what the heck happened and with a soft British lilt he explained how he was on Isabella the night before when someone came running in to explain that some whales had beached themselves nearby. As he and the entire village came running, 12 pilot whales lie twisting in the surf. In pitch blackness he worked with these strangers to try and get them back to sea with some success.

The moral of the story: I am in a land where strange and singular things happen. I need to make sure that I am open and ready to receive them.

New Million dollar idea

It will be like a snorkel, except in times of surprise visitors that almost give you a heart attack it will morph into a retractable, underwater club.

Spent a day on a boat touring a number of the islands and snorkeling at each (its killing me that I am not diving, but my doctor says that until the ringing goes away I am not allowed. Almost there, I will be ready for the Marquesas! Who wants a blown ear drum 2 days before you set sail anyways.) The outlying islands themselves are pretty barren (at least the ones that I saw). Saw the requisite seals, sea lions, pelicans, boobies (all different sizes and three different colours) and faggots (who the hell names these birds anyways? Must have been some fun at the bird naming convention that day). [EDITORS NOTE - One of the more amusing language mix ups. Google tells me these birds are actually Frigates. Still if you see a boobie with blue feet you would be in the Galapagos, and probably a bit concerned]. Saw a hammerhead from the boat that was gone before we hit the water, swam along side a leopard ray for some time, and a dozen or so white tipped sharks. They lie on the bottom of the ocean like planes waiting for take off. Again - I don´t want to hear how good the diving is here if this is what I see on a couple of short snorkels where I can't even clear my ears and go down more than 7 feet.

I would say that this is the best snorkeling that have done. Its strange to be in what appear to be very tropical waters (parrot fish a plenty etc.), but with a very north Atlantic feeling current and ruggedness (and seals etc.). However, I never go snorkeling so I could be just inexperienced.

Capped the day off with a little bit of beech sitting. All in all a good day. The only problem as I see it is is the deep purple sunburn that I managed to get during the 40 min sit in the back of a pickup each way to the boat and the (Duh!) burn on my back and legs as II floated above the ocean for quite some time. I have quadrupled my water intake and sit carefully in the plastic lawn chair as I type this, slathered in some gooey substance that appears to be after sun that I purchased at a pharmacy.

St. P's Day

I looked feverishly for some sort of celebration on Santa Cruz to keep the tradition alive. As it turns out and predictably I guess, this is a non event here. I whiled away the evening like I have most any other day, with a heavy dose of Salsa Dancing and Meringue.

Looking forward to Bastille Day in Polynesia!

Home sweet home

Had a delightful meal with Chris and Elsie. I hadn´t really thought about it (like a lot of things that I am seeing these days), but not only am I helping someone as crew, I will actually be living in their home. Boat owners must feel so vulnerable and twitchy about meeting crew for the first time. Its kind of like a boarder that shows up at your door and says "Ok - here I am, when do we move this thing cross country?". They were very welcoming and went overboard (pun intended) to make me feel welcome which I appreciated. There must be some horror stories about this situation on both sides of a new crew - owner relationship.

They both have led extremely rich lives and have some incredible stories to tell of world travelling (and living). Puts pretty much anyone I know to shame, I can tell you that.

Turned out that there was a communication mix up and in fact I was there for lunch (after I had just finished on the mainland). No problem, we'll just make it a late lunch. Nice and calm. I can't wait to join this fraternity.

The boat is quite solid, organized and provisioned. I am shocked at how much work has gone into this voyage already, not to mention the seemingly constant bureaucracy that Chris has had to endure.

I join on the 21st and then its not really clear to me when we actually leave. I am sure there will be a day or two of last minute stuff and getting all squared away. We are hitting one of the islands on our way out (Isabella) and then its clear blue sea.

Feeling good.

Move to a boot and get laced.

Some where out here is my new home. I am taking a water taxi today to go and find her. I am starting to like the yaughtie approach to timing. We agreed that "sometime" today I would drop by to say hello and see what I have gotten myself into. "Sometime" today we will have a toast and eat some food. "Sometime" before the 25th of March we will set sail. "Sometime" the third crew member will arrive (although we haven't heard from him) and "sometime" I might wake up to have a coffee. Don't get me wrong, its been tough to not let my impatience rear its ugly head, but there is a certain calming nature to rolling with it instead of against the clock and the calendar. So many people have told me this in life, I was just never able to listen. I hope that I am not lying to y'all through this blog, but thats the way I am feeling right now. We shall see.

"I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection" (Golapagos Islands)

Been an interesting 24 hours. 12 of which was spent in Quito, 8 of which was spent in transit to Isla Santa Cruz and 4 of which has been spent getting a bed and wandering around the town. I have already: met Christopher (and his wife Elsie) by chance as he hunted down a replacement anchor, had beers, been promoted to Assistant Navigator (pretty prestigous! Mike - I really wish my life allowed me to visit with you and John before I left) and potentially been offered a slot on the Tonga to New Zealand (October) leg of his around the world journey. We shall see.

Chris is an opinionated yet thoughtful guy who likes to laugh. I think we will get along great.

Off to sort out some sort of tour. Its not really clear how long we will be here, but I am not really caring at this point. I don´t need to be on a plane for a goodly long time, there is nothing to reserve that is on the "critical path" to me getting on a boat and no bus to take that I don´t want to be on. Dovetail into the Pacific and forget about it.

New way to waste time waiting for planes.

This thing they call "blogging" is good fun and very useful for airport time wastage.

Spanish keyboards still suck.

Alt + 58 = :

Sorry mother earth, I will make it up to you

After selecting the perfect spot, it was time to finally rid the world of the scourge known as Mike's cell phone. I've let a number of folks know that this was the plan and was usually met with horror that I would either a) put an end to a perfectly good piece of tech, or b) contemplate further poisoning an already beleaguered part of our ecosystem.

Sorry. It had to be done. Call me selfish or short sighted. I may be both right now and I really don't care. Which validates both.

I also learned something very important in the process. My digital camera stops capturing after 3:00 minutes of video. SO, although I wanted to share it with the world - you only get to see me making my last call for next 6 months and not the impressive heave-ho that sent it to the depths. Probably just as well. The shot went more up than out and I probably looked dramtic as I stumbled forward in my hatred and gave it the strong arm in salute.

Ahhhhh. Do you feel that? Its not my pocket vibrating.