It's always inspiring to hear of people pushing the boundaries - all the more so when they are suffering from serious disability. I was invited today to crew on a mother ship for a quadriplegic sailor, Geoff Holt, who is aiming to sail around the coast of Britain - a challenge I would find impossible even with the use of all my limbs.
Unfortunately my schedule won't allow me to take up the invitation, but I've done what I can by making a contribution to RYA Sailability, Geoff's chosen charity. If you want to support him too, then click here to go to his JustGiving page.
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We've spent the day motor-sailing very sedately over to the booby-haven islands about 12 miles from La Cruz. I wish our slow pace was because we're so chilled out, but in fact it's because the wind is almost non-existent, and our depleted electronics will only allow us to run on one engine rather than two.
Still, it was a worthwhile journey - fun to scramble up the rocks to see booby birds of various stages of maturity and various colours of feet - red, yellow and blue.
Man, this pace is so slooooww. But still twice as fast as I went in my rowboat, with a lot more miles to cover. The ocean certainly does teach patience.
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Most of Jangada's electrics are still not working. We managed to scavenge a depth sounder and a VHF radio, but still have no autopilot, wind instruments or refrigerator. But we'd had enough of hanging out in 'Paradise Village' ('they paved paradise, and put up a parking lot'...) so we cast off the mooring lines and took our lightning-damaged craft on a little jaunt up the coast to La Cruz. As we left Nuevo Vallarta a whale spouted and showed off his huge tail fluke a few hundred feet away. Birds flew in single line formation low over the waves. The sun shone. It felt good to be out on the water. This is, after all, what we came here for, not to spend day after day messing around with melted marine electronics.
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Today was my ocean rowboat Sedna's anticipated arrival date in Miami. I rang the handling agents to find out if she had indeed arrived.
The first time I tried the entire department was out to lunch. The second time I tried I got through to someone who didn't know how to use her computer screen. The third time I found someone who could tell me something, although not necessarily the thing I wanted to hear...
Sedna is still gadding about in the Caribbean, most likely Trinidad, although who knows. Her ETA in Miami is now 11th December. I am so glad that circumstances conspired to prevent me being there waiting for her. She is already 4 weeks overdue, and 10 days still to go. At least. I would have been going crazy. And broke.
Why does EVERYTHING involving boats take so much longer than expected? Speaking of which, we went into town to try and buy replacements for Jangada's lightning-fried electronics today. But it's some random Mexican bank holiday, that happens once every six years, to hand over the reins of power to the new president. Great.
[Photo: the last time I saw Sedna, in Hugh Bailey's boatyard in Antigua]
Previous Posts on Sedna's Caribbean Tour:
Sedna Still Holidaying in Caribbean - 27 Nov
The Strange Voyage of Sedna Solo
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