A walk in the park

Literally. A state park borders the marina. Deb and I walk it nearly every day we are on the boat. In many ways this morning's sojourn was just another meander past the empty camping spaces. A few red squirrels scampered here and there and except for the distant roar of an air boat, (sorry - I hate those things - I know they are perfect for swamp lands but there are no swamps around here and they are just obnoxiously loud) it was quiet with a warm sun and a barely moving cold breeze. We watched tens of thousands of geese fly overhead heading south, marveled at a giant swirl of sea gulls maneuvering over a shallows, (never seen them do that before) and talked of how five years have passed since we first came this way. And somehow the whole experience took on an ethereal glow - another touch of magic carried in on a cool northwest wind. This is a good place to be and a good time to be here.

Even as we work on getting away. You see before the walk, as we were stumbling our way out of the v-berth pretty late this morning, (It was a long day of flying yesterday on very little sleep - really!) the chat was of being "boat bums." We decided that "boat bumming" wasn't really a matter of endurance so much as the experience of the moment. Any time one has 30 seconds or so to be on the boat doing exactly what one wants to do, one is indulging in boat bummery. That "doing" could be lounging around in the berth, starting up a pot of coffee, fixing something that needs fixing, standing a night watch, or tapping out words for a blog; it doesn't matter so long as the doing of it is one's own choice and it is being done on or around a boat.

The trick is to string those 30 second bits into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. Right now we manage day and long-weekend strings. We have managed week-long strings in the past and will get to month and year-long strings as soon as we can.

The goal to be, not just boat bums, (though that is a worthy goal) but to be EXPERIENCED boat bums; EXPERT boat bums; to be counted as among THOSE MOST EXALTED of all boat bums...

Cruisers.