Bonthorn: Living My Version of Life: Living In The Moment

Sunday, October 06, 2019

Living In The Moment

"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,

Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;

So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,

Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from Part III, The Theologian’s Tale

Our night passage from Newport, Rhode Island to Port Washington, New York, was smooth.

We covered 120 nautical miles, left at 6:30am and exactly 24 hrs later, we hooked up to a mooring ball.

Another night passage under our belt!

Departing Newport harbour at sunrise, we were awestruck as we passed the Queen Mary 2 ship.

We hoisted our sails and enjoyed the cool autumnal breeze for a few hours.

Around mid-day the wind died and after a bit of bobbing around at 1.5 knots, we relented and turned on the motor.

Ahh, the motor! She purrs and she can hold us steady at a good speed now. We just need to make sure we keep to a regular maintenance schedule to keep her healthy and in good form.

It was a peaceful night, partly cloudy with patches of clear sky dotted with stars.

Matt was on watch from 8pm to midnight while I took a nap.

We switched over at midnight. I stood watch until 5am, monitoring vessel traffic and chatting with our buddy boat for company.

Although there were very few vessels transiting Long Island Sound like us, I did speak to a tug captain on VHF that overtook us around 3am.

Matt came back on watch at 5am while I grabbed a short nap before needing to be back up on deck as we entered Port Washington harbour.

It was very nice and reassuring to be navigating this famous body of water with our buddy boat SV Jalenea.

We only met Stephanie Wessel and Ben Wessel yesterday in Newport but the connection was instantaneous.

All kid boat families come from a very similar mindset and intention. It is such a rare treat to find like-minded people in life, from the way we approach life to the way we parent.

But when you do meet a kid boat family, you connect quickly because we have all gone through a similar transition from land to water... we just 'get' one another. And like the quotation above, sometimes we are like ships passing through the night. We meet, boat together, go separate ways.

No matter how long we crossed paths for, be it a couple of hours or a couple of weeks, the connection is for life.

Due to the weather forecast and our timeline, we have decided to stay here in Port Washington for a bit.

The Annapolis boat show is next weekend and we intend to be there, boat or no boat!

The next few days' weather and wind forecast are not conducive for us going down the New Jersey coastline and then up the Delaware Canal to Annapolis.

There are not many places to bail once you commit to jumping from NYC.

We have decided to leave our boat here on the ball and hire a car to get to Annapolis. Then when we return we won't be rushed into heading south because of a schedule.

We'll go when the weather is ideal. Even if it means putting on a few more layers to fend off the frosty nights!

In the meantime, we find ourselves with a few unexpected days here in NYC to explore and catch up with some family and friends!

Cruising schedules can change so quickly. Day by day, hour by hour.

The kids are getting better at accepting our constantly shifting plans. Sometimes they complain if our family board game time has to wait another day or if a certain boat job moves up the priority list and their tablet time is delayed or cancelled.

Luckily they are old enough to understand why and to even help with planning a new direction in our ever changing flow of cruising life.

It's all about living in the moment, eh?