Music to My Ears

Listening to the pitter patter of rain against the windows brings a warm, comfortable feeling to my entire being; or perhaps it’s just the Soju I’m drinking.

Probably both. A night like this demands a few glasses of good wine or a green bottle of Chamisul, a Korean soju, the original of course, now called “classic”. Maybe old guys like me would rather be called classic than original.

Now, it’s getting dark at 4:00 p.m.  Europe changed from Daylight Savings Time this past weekend.  They call it Summer Time by the way.

But I like these dark, windy, rain swept days.  The only thing better is snow. Why else would I have lived in Alaska for so long? It certainly wasn’t for the baked goods!

No, these cozy times call for a drink to warm your innards, sit and think.  Think about where we have been and where we are going.

Once again I find myself plotting the general route for this spring and summer, but then the mouse has a mind of its own, and keeps on plotting waypoints.  Before long, the summer becomes the fall and then the winter trade winds take over and swoosh the mouse goes marking a path in seconds that will take a year to do.

I tell myself it’s too much.  I need to stop and smell the roses; all is well and good it is; until it strikes.

What strikes you may ask?   If I get struck with a case of wanderlust that can only be cured by listening to the sea as Dauntless cuts thru the waves.  The gentle hiss; the curl of the water making an endless pipeline wave, calls you to jump right in and feel what the dolphins feel.

We did 4400 nm this summer, a little more than 1000 miles per month.  A hard pace.  But I knew it was pushing it when I planned it and all in all, I got back to Waterford within a day of the plan I had made in April, 6 months earlier.  Would I do it again?  Of course I would if the same situation presented itself; A chance to explore beautiful lands off the beaten track.  Meet wonderful new friends. Get even closer to old friends.  One can not ask for much more than that.

So, just for “shits and grins” a favorite USAF saying, I laid out a 16 month, 14,000 mile trip.   Honestly, I keep hoping the miles had somehow gotten less.  Doesn’t everyone nowadays talk about how the world is shrinking?  Seemingly not on Dauntless.  The route stays pretty much he same every time I look at it.

I do pore over the Jimmy Cornell book, “World Cruising Routes” hoping to find the tiny wormhole that will transport us from the Canaries to Northwest Asia in a blink of an eye.  At least that’s how long it took in Deep Space Nine.

But the people I’ve met along the way call to me like the Sirens of Odysseus. No wonder it took him 10 years to get home.

Author: Richard on Dauntless

I’m an eclectic person, who grew up in New York, lived overseas for many years and have a boat, Dauntless, a 42 foot Kadey Krogen trawler yacht. Dauntless enables me to not only live in many different parts of the world, but to do it in a way that is interesting, affordable, with the added spice of a challenge. Dauntless also allows me to be in touch with nature. As the boat glides through the ocean, you have a sense of being part of a living organism. When dolphins come to frolic, they stay longer if you are out there talking to them, watching them. Birds come by, sometimes looking for a handout; sometimes grateful to find a respite from their long journey. I grew up on the New York waterfront, in the West Village, when everything west of Hudson St. was related to shipping and cargo from around the world. For a kid, it was an exciting place of warehouses, trucks, and working boats of all kinds: tugs and the barges and ships, cargo and passenger, they were pushing around. My father was an electrical engineer, my mother an intellectual, I fell in between. I have always been attracted to Earth’s natural processes, the physical sciences. I was in 8th grade when I decided to be a Meteorologist. After my career in meteorology, my natural interest in earth sciences: geology, astronomy, geography, earth history, made it a natural for me to become a science teacher in New York City, when I moved back to the Big Apple. Teaching led to becoming a high school principal to have the power to truly help kids learn and to be successful not only in school but in life. Dauntless is in western Europe now. In May and June, I will be wrapping up the last two years in northern Europe, heading south to spend the rest of the year in Spain & Portugal. Long term, I’m planning on returning to North American in the fall of 2017 and from there continuing to head west until we’re in Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, where we will settle for a bit. But now, my future lies not in NY or even Europe, but back to the water, where at night, when the winds die down, there is no noise, only the silence of the universe. I feel like I am at home, finally. View all posts by Richard on Dauntless