How "Boaties" look to the outside world

(This is an original composition! Thanks to all of you who have requested some of my own writings!  I have also registered at Themestream, a place on the web for writers to publish their writings.  We get paid for each visit to our writings - and there's a place to review the writings! One will NEVER get rich from it, but you might like to go here - http://www.themestream.com and help the cause a wee bit!  Just look for the author - Maggie Ryan, in the Sailing section. I'll try to keep new compositions published here.

Believe it or not - but I have had folks who have said they wanted to donate something to this adventure!!  I find that hard to believe, as I've never even MET these folks!! This site pays 10 cents a visit!!!  One would have to visit quite often in order for it to change my life! But it costs you nothing! I feel very strange about accepting money from people - especially since I'm sitting in a marina!  But this might satisfy any urges well-meaning cyber-friends may have!)

I just had a visit from people from my "previous life"!

These are friends from ‘back home’ – where I left 2 ½ years ago.

They are on a ‘grand tour’ of sorts – getting away from Michigan with their little pop-up camper. As long as I’ve known these folks – well over 10 years, neither of them had ever left the confines of a radius of about 100 miles around that small Midwestern town of about 10,000 souls. They are both now retired – both getting social security – and obviously decided to blow a part of their retirement funds. So they attached the camper to their van, and took off for the WEST! They did the Grand Canyon, Tucson, and most points between there and Michigan – taking their time and enjoying their freedom.

Since they had not seen nor heard from me since I left Michigan – they decided to look me up – with the help of an on-line friend who had kept in touch.

You have to remember that when they knew me – I was a typical small-town lady. I had a 10 acre farm on a river, a 2 story farmhouse, barns full of ‘stuff’, and a houseful of ‘stuff’. I would host parties and campouts for my city friends and was a respectable bank officer, solid citizen and general all-around normal person.

So, whenever my "vision’ comes to mind for them, I suspect I am sitting in my comfortable dining room, surrounded by nice things, sharing a cup of coffee and gossip of the day. There are probably visions of other friends who have come for the weekend, and have camping paraphernalia set up back by the river and sausages cooking on the open fire.

I now live on a 30 foot sailboat on Clear Lake, off Galveston Bay in the Houston area of Texas. The boat is situated in a respectable marina and surrounded by expensive yachts – both sail and motor types. By necessity, all extraneous ‘stuff’ has been discarded and only required things are kept on the boat. There are no ‘decorations’, pictures, or purely ‘fun to look at’ stuff on the boat! If it doesn’t have an immediate use, it’s not on the boat!! All you who live on boats know that aberration of boaties!

When they arrived, J had to maneuver his van-camper outfit around the narrow confines of the parking lot. D got out of the vehicle and came to find me and the boat. She stood on the dock (which, fortuitously, is attached to solid ground – since I am on the bulkhead). She hollered at me to make sure I’m on-board. (I could TELL it wasn't another 'boatie' yelling - as they all say AHOY! )

When I stepped out of my cabin into the cockpit to greet her – the first words out of her mouth were "Where are your shoes??"

I haven’t seen this lady for 2 ½ years! So, instead of saying "I’m just dandy! How are you?", I’m responding with an explanation of how I prefer to live barefoot, in shorts and T’s!

The look of incredibility on the face of this woman was almost funny!! She had never even seen me in shorts, let alone barefoot!

Since she didn’t seem inclined to come onto the boat, I jumped off onto the dock and got and gave the hug that was proper. By this time, J had parked the rig and was motioning for us to come visit with him. (The marina has signs posted all over the place – no RVs in the parking area – so he didn’t want to leave where he had it parked!)

We walked down the dock to where he was parked. She seemed reluctant to even walk along the water!! We found J – exchanged hugs again and pleasantries of the day, their trip and the weather – which had been and was promising to be – stormy and windy. We mapped out plans for them to find a motel for the night and for me to join them for supper.

The next day, we planned to visit NASA – and they said they would come to the marina and pick me up and we would all go together in their van. So bright and early on Friday morning, they both came to the marina sans camper! And since they both now had to come and properly acknowledge my living arrangements –they approached the boat with a bit of trepidation, I’m sure!!

J didn’t quite know how to board the boat! So I pulled it over to the dock by the line attached between dock and boat and secured it so it would stay within hopping distance of the dock.

J hopped on – rather gingerly, of course! D obviously figured this was something she HAD to do, so I held her hand while she stepped from dock to boat! I invited them down below – into the cabin, but she absolutely REFUSED to move herself from the cockpit! She moaned that she was getting an upset stomach already from the rocking of the boat! To me, there was NO rocking!!! J did come below – sat down and admired the scanty furnishings that adorned my humble abode!

After the required amount of time had elapsed, we all left to do our sightseeing for the day. Afterward, we sat in a small outdoor pub and had a real conversation about ‘life’!

Even the sitting in the outdoor pub was unsettling to my lady friend! She had made the remark when we left NASA that she was most comfortable sitting in a walled building with no windows, totally engrossed in work. That was ‘security’ for her! And my entire conversation consisted of how I loved living outdoors – with only the shelter of the cabin and the dry bed for indoor activities.

She finally made the comment, "M, I could NEVER live like you do!" I bit my tongue to refrain from saying, "and I could never go back to living like you do…"

We enjoyed our time together, but we were all relieved to be getting back to our familiar routines in life!

These are folks that I dearly love!  We have shared many fun times together! I felt honored that they would visit me in this 'far off' land!  It's just that I am the one who changed so dramatically! I don't fit in the old frame of reference any longer.  I guess I just expect all my 'old' friends to accept that in me.  

As I was recounting the experience to a friend, he had the following support:

As I read his comments, I re-called the story of the crab fisherman.

The crab fisherman was sitting on a dock, doing whatever it is that crab fishermen do to catch their catch! As he’d catch one, he’d toss it into a bucket sitting on the dock beside him. A city feller was watching the progress. After the bucket had acquired a few crabs, the visitor noticed that some of them were trying to crawl out of the bucket. He remarked to the fisherman, "One of your crabs is trying to crawl out of the bucket!"

"Don’t worry about it." replied the fisherman and kept about his business.

Pretty soon, becoming worried, the visitor said "One crab is almost out of the bucket!!"

"Don’t worry about it" was the unconcerned answer.

When one crab was nearly out of the bucket, the visitor became very concerned!! Just as he was about to speak up again, claws from below reached up and pulled the escaping crab back down into the bucket!!

"Look at that!!" exclaimed the visitor! "The other crabs pulled him back into the bucket!!"

"Yep!", replied the fisherman. "It’s just like real life. When your peers think you are escaping, they’ll do all they can to pull you back down with them."

M. Ryan Saturday, May 06, 2000