thanksgiving – Have Wind Will Travel

While it’s an exercise I truly feel we should all try to do everyday, it’s nice there’s a holiday that comes every year that really motivates you to step back, take a look at your life, and appreciate everything you are thankful for. I encourage you each to take a moment today to reflect on this yourself and see if you can name your top ten. It’s a great exercise in humility and gratitude. The adventurous life that Phillip and I currently lead and that we work very hard for is probably the thing I am the most thankful for. It stemmed from a very brave but scary decision I made when I was thirty to get divorced, move out of and sell my home, and eventually leave the law practice to start a remote writing career. And, it was this lifestyle and attitude change that has fueled each of my adventures since and it was the basis for my book, Keys to the Kingdom, which I will be signing and mailing to one of you for our Holiday Book Giveaway #2! Right after a very fun Thanksgiving Top Ten. The first follower to correctly answer the trivia question below in a comment wins! Good luck. And, feel free to leave your own top tens in a comment too. I found this exercise in thankfulness very revealing and rewarding.

In somewhat of a particular order, here are my Top Ten!

#1 My health. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to simply not be able to do the things you want to do. Even the simple ones like cleaning your house or driving a car, not to mention the thrilling and rewarding ones like sailing, kite-surfing and aerial silks. I am grateful every day that my body happily rises out of bed and to whatever I want to do, responds: “I’m in!”

#2 Family. I pay homage today to this fine, fierce fellow, John, my brother, and when we were growing up: my mentor, my tormentor (at times), my friend and my co-conspirator in crime. Also known as “Bro-Lo” (because Annie Jo is his “Jo-Lo”) and also boasting a face capable of rocking sunglasses of any kind because he looks that fucking fabulous.

And you do, Bro-Lo. Rock those shades!

#3 My youth. This Birthday Princess turned the big 3-5 this year and I feel just a few days older than 18. I’m so thankful I spend most of my days at this age on a boat in the sunshine, rather than behind a desk under a fluorescent light, and I’m so excited about the many more years yet to come, however many I’m granted. I also welcome the wrinkles and grey hairs! They’re just proof of what a kick-ass time I’ve had along the way.

#4 My sense of adventure. This was on our way to Cuba last December. I sometimes can’t believe Phillip and I sailed there just the two of us over 500 miles offshore from Florida to Cuba on our boat. While we did cross the Atlantic together in 2016 as well, there was just something about that voyage, our struggles, our fears, our accomplishments and being out there, traveling that far with just one other person, that made that particular voyage feel like the biggest adventure. I’m so glad I have a thirst and passion to see the world by boat, not to mention a boat and a buddy to do it all with!

#5 My sense of humor. Which I get from this guy. My Daddio! A man who, no matter how crappy the situation was when we were growing up (because at times it was), always found a way to slide me over on the bench seat of his truck, scoop me up under his arm and somehow make me laugh. Usually by singing some silly made-up song, a habit I also picked up. Thanks for all the laughs and silly ditties Daddio! Funny, I just now realized one of the main songs he used to sing to me was about a sailor. I guess it was a prophecy.

“Who’s that knocking at your door? It’s Barnum Bill the Sailor!”

#6 Friends (who share the same senses). These are the people in my life who also seek adventure and who also see something funny and ironic in even the most terrible of circumstances. They know just what to say, or when to say nothing at all, they call me on my shit and slap me straight when I need it, and they make fun of me when I need that, too. Someone’s gotta keep me humble.

#7 Our boat. She is the sucking black hole of our money, time, sweat, blood, money, time and money and she is worth every damn penny and drop. Plaintiff’s Rest is our ticket to the world. Even when you break, leak, groan, ooze, gulp and guzzle, I still love you girl!

#8 Food. It’s just good. All of it. So damn good. And, I’m so thankful to be a healthy, active person so I can keep stuffing my mouth full of it. This is from our first Thanksgiving on the boat, 2013, when we sailed to the Wharf to spend the holiday with Phillip’s family. Gobble! Gobble!

Annnnnd this was us about an hour later. I’m thankful for post-Turkey sleep too. ZZZZzzzzzz

#9 Wine. It just makes everything better. Particularly boat projects! Cheers!

#10 (But really #1) My Adventure Buddy. My life partner, my rock, my friend, my confidante, my Everything Buddy. My Phillip. I wouldn’t be here (a salty sailor / traveling author with the world at my doorstep) without him. Buckle up, Sir, we’ve got a million places to go!

Man, that was fun, right? I encourage you to do one of your own and go find old photos to go along with it. It’s a great exercise in humility and gratitude. And, since Phillip and I are so grateful for all of our followers here, we’ve got a Keys to the Kingdom gift in store for one of you. For fun, I went back and pulled a quick story from an old blog post about our very first Thanksgiving on the boat, in 2013, to inspire the trivia question. Funny, I mentioned several Annie docking debacles and my fear of docking, even back then. Well, that’s another thing I’m grateful for this year. Working up the courage to take the damn wheel and just dock the darn thing. You may bump a few things, you may scuff the hull, but you just have to do it so you won’t be so scared of it anymore. Docking is always going to be an adventure. Enjoy the old HaveWind tale and good luck on the trivia!

From my November 27, 2013 HWWT post: “What’ll It Be, Sir?“

We had a slip reserved at The Wharf for Thanksgiving, so we pulled anchor Wednesday morning (November 27th) and headed over that way. We were going to have to stop first at the fuel dock to pump out before we could tie up at our slip. The wind was really howling as we neared the dock so I bundled up some more (yes, more) and prepared to jump off to secure the boat as fast as possible. We were not going to have another Annie docking debacle. Not that day.

As Phillip inched the bow up next to the dock, I jumped off (with an actual line in hand this time) and clamored around furiously cleating lines off to keep the boat on the dock. It was a bit of a scramble but we did it.

And, when the fuel boy came out to see what we needed, the first thing he said to me was: “What’ll it be, sir?”

I can’t imagine why …

My God, look at me in that outfit. Surely, it wasn’t that cold, do you think? Apparently Annie did. I can’t believe I even could jump in that get-up. But Phillip and I loved that yellow slicker. It came with the boat, and it was way too big for either of us, but we wore it anyway, for years.

TRIVIA!

For a free Keys to the Kingdom book, signed and mailed to ya: What did we call that rubber suit of yellowy goodness? And … GO!

With that succulent bird basking before us, it didn’t take long before plates started clanging, corks were popping and knives were pulled from their sheaths. Yes, we keep them in sheaths. We’re sailors, remember?

See? She is totally a sailor. … Totally.

I whipped my sea-gull carver out of its holster and went to town on that turkey.

I severed every single morsel I could off of her while the crew hauled the patio table in from the balcony (very classy) and set us a royal feast.

We snapped a few fun shots on the deck and toasted the sunset while the last of the Thanksgiving goodies were baking.

And, I can assure you none of us was donning anything that could be remotely considered a “skinny jean” for this meal. Calories don’t count on Thanksgiving – or so I’ve been told. Only stretchy pants and elastic waistlines would do for this crew. And, if what they say about turkey is true, it certainly worked on Phillip and I:

ZZZZzzzzzzzz

Within fifteen minutes of dinner, we were out. (Although, it seems the turkey myth has been busted! Apparently, they now believe it’s actually a combination of booze, bad conversation and boatloads of carbs. Well, we had all of that too, so … who’s to say). We were sleeping soundly, with little wishbones and sweet potatoes dancing in our heads. And, John Besh. He was definitely dancing through mine. It was a great meal, spent with a great group and was a nice change of pace from the quiet little dinners Phillip and I had been cooking up on the boat during the voyage. But, we were – as always – ready to get back on her. We spent one more night on the pull-out at the condo, ran eight more loads of laundry (including the curtains) and started readying the boat the next morning for the last leg of our Thanksgiving Voyage.

We waved goodbye to our sail groupies, tossed the lines and headed back out toward Wolf Bay.

Dinghy in tow.

The wind was blowing about 25 knots that day, though, and it was some tight maneuvering through the ICW, so we couldn’t raise the sails for the day’s jaunt. We had to motor, but I shot some Pulitzer-worthy footage of us braving the wind and weather that day.

Video here. A Chilly Happy Holidays!!

The sun was out, though, which meant the temp was decidedly tolerable, and we weren’t suffering from frozen phalanges and snotsicles. This time. We motored from The Wharf back to Fort McRae and decided to drop anchor at one of our typical haunts, Red Fish Point (just west of Fort McRae), to enjoy one more peaceful night on the hook.

We curled up with some books and a few choice cocktails and took in our last sunset of the trip.

Great view of the pink horizon from inside the boat:

Although we had been out there ten days, it seemed to fly by. I couldn’t believe the trip was coming to an end. Getting a bit sentimental, I even made Phillip suffer through a shamefully embarrassing “selfie” to memorialize the event.

And, for those of you unfamiliar with the term:

Selfie:

A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort of social media networking website. You can usually see the person’s arm holding out the camera, [or a shadow of the camera itself] in which case you can clearly tell that this person does not have any friends to take pictures of them so they resort to find internet friends on whose pages they can post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves.

Ouch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that doesn’t apply to us. All evidence to the contrary (i.e., me, posting a selfie on the blog), we do have a few real friends. But, the term was apparently awarded the high honor of word of the year in 2013, with the best selfie shot going to this chick:

Who totally earned it with that heroic display. Click!

It even appears our esteemed president finds himself in the ‘selfie’ mood on occasion.

Perhaps Nelson Mandela’s memorial service was not the right occasion (even Jon Stewart says tssk, tssk), but if the president does it, then I don’t feel so bad about it.

After our selfie shoot wrapped and the sun set, I got creative and baked us up one last Thanksgiving treat – some fresh homemade pumpkin bread.

A box mix is still considered homemade, right??

It was delicious regardless and we savored the setting, the silence of the evening and the sanctuary of our last night on the boat. And, as it usually happens, the best is somehow inexplicably saved for last. The very last day of our 10-day ‘voyage’ turned out to be the best sail we’d had since the last leg of the Gulf Crossing. And, I’ll bet when I start to say “another great day of sailing on the Plaintiff’s Rest … ” many of you glaze over and check out, and while I get it. I do. At the same time, I hate it for you. I know it’s just because you don’t know how freeing sailing really is. I hope, with this blog, and my meager words, over time, I can change that. I can give you a glimpse of what sailing means to us. At the very least, I can try to take you along with us, transport you, plant you right there in the cockpit beside us, one hand gripped tight around the Jenny sheet, the other wiping a splash of salt water from your face, as you watch the sails pull taut and get that roller coaster feeling in your gut when the boat heels over. Hold on to your drinks kids, we’ve got plenty in store.

Tag: thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Top Ten & Book Giveaway #2!

November 29, 2013: Last Day – The Places You’ll Go