A Week at the Beach
The Place:
Fort Myers Beach. Boldly colored buildings selling beachwear and bathing suits. A big tourist area. A library with sand at the entrance. A tiki bar with great cocktails where Grace and Mike sang a karaoke song they didn’t know.
A ~70 boat mooring field surrounded by loud and busy restaurants. A 15+ minute dinghy ride from our mooring ball to our access point to shore, which forced me to face my fear of driving the dinghy alone. Conquering that fear was going really well until once I ran out of gas 60 feet from Elpis and a sympathetic boat neighbor had to rescue me.
The People:
Mike: Qualities include being one of the most charismatic people you will ever meet. Can and will become friends with anyone. Captivating storyteller. One of the only people I trust to cook me a fish dinner. Owns some great Patagonia. Sailing on Samadhi from Traverse City, MI.
Daniel: A secret piano wizard. A warm sweater collector. Has a desire for minimalist living and is planning to hike the Appalachian Trail. Left Traverse City, MI on S/V Rhaennon, but sold his boat and joined Mike as crew on Samadhi.
Grace: Pirate in training. High-quality engine mechanic and boat-fixer. Avid coffee drinker. An endless well of energy and positive attitude.
Emily: Harry Potter enthusiast. A voice of reason when Grace has consumed too much coffee. Aspiring mermaid. Not quite sure how she ended up here but is happy about it.
The Highlights:
My first oil change (with light guidance from Grace), also known as The World’s Cleanest Oil Change. Hose replacement on the water tank. A battle with mold that made our boat smell like vinegar for several days. Grace saying she felt like we lived inside a salt and vinegar chip bag.
Frequent trips to the library. Reluctantly facing our bank accounts for the first time in months. Entering numbers into excel spreadsheets with labels such as groceries, marinas, tools, and boat parts. Resolving to fish for all of our food in the Bahamas.
Setting up a boat library, making the boat feel less temporary and more like a comfortable place to spend time. Afternoon yoga on the beach. Hammocking for hours, swinging gently between the mast and the forestay while reading “The God of Small Things.” Evenings in the Matanzas hot tub and roaming the town.
The Takeaways:
I became 100% sold on this boat trip for the very first time, a change in attitude which likely came from finding close friends to travel with. We spent dinners studying Navionics charts and planning our future trips with Mike and Dan, and we had hours of conversation on the uniqueness of breaking the traditional college —> career trajectory.
Grace and I really settled into our cruising lifestyle in FMB. We measured our heights on the bulkhead and compared it to the leadline that Grace made. We started to remember things like that I eat mac and cheese with a spoon and Grace prefers a fork. We shared books and stories and meals and we talked about how fun it is to dinghy to our friends’ boats for dinner and to not have to wear shoes. Everyday, we co-exist in a small space and learn patience and try to understand things from each other’s point of view. When we want to go somewhere, we go; it’s as simple as that. Our home moves with the wind. We laugh a lot.
While in FMB, I spent a lot of time thinking about how we pride ourselves on taking on as much as possible. For example, in college, we take a full courseload and work part-time and have to balance that with being on a travel sports team and going to the gym and having a social life and it’s all go-go-go and we never take time to stop and think about if we’re happy. On this boat trip, it has been incredibly refreshing to spend time delving into books and watching sunsets from our hammocks and to be forced to move at 5 miles per hour and take in as much nature as possible because we don’t have one million things to distract ourselves with. We’re forced to reflect and learn about ourselves and deal with who we are because we don’t have work or extracurriculars to focus on, just sailing and our library of books and the water. Grace and I recognize how privileged we are to be able to take this opportunity to do this trip and have this kind of life reflection, and I think it’s been really good for us.
The most Florida-like library
Dan, Grace, Em, and Mike post-pizza at Matanzas
Double hammocks at sunset
Boat Library!
Replacing the water hose or a yoga pose?
