Preparation

There are different levels of awareness, or maybe anxiety is a better word, when it comes to preparation. The discussion turned to end-of-the-world scenarios at a recent dinner. This seems to be more prevalent since you know who was elected. I could not help airing my opinion that a big gun with lots of ammo needs to be part of your survival kit simply because once everyone figures out you have prepared, they are going to want some of it.

I was preaching to the choir. The entire table quieted down as one member gave a detailed description of a basement shelter stocked with months worth of food and water. I slowly backed out of the conversation murmuring to keep my opinions and smart ass delivery to myself.

Though I was a Boy Scout for only a few months, I am definitely an adherent of being prepared. When the leaves start to change, I begin to lay in stocks of pasta, canned tomatoes, olive oil and maybe a few cans of cannelloni beans. Chicago has not suffered through true survival conditions for some time but memories die hard.

Murphy’s Law was firmly inculcated in my young psyche by a friend’s father who started me sailing at the tender age of eleven. Most landlubbers consider this a truly negative way to spend a life…always waiting for the next shoe to drop, but for sailors it is all in an afternoon’s sail.

I feel I am drifting away from the initial intent of this essay: the preparation for 2017’s cruise. At 37,000 feet heading SE toward Carrie Rose, I feel a lack of urgency. I want to tell myself that this is because of the last six years of extensive cruising, but I know that is a lie. Despite the years on the water, I have never gotten beyond doubting my abilities.

Each morning before we depart, I do an inventory of where we have cruised. The mind is a miraculous thing especially first thing in the morning with rested neuronal synapses fired up with caffeine. The process of remembering goes quickly, and reassures me that I can get out of the slip and get us to our destination. Once reassured, I turn the key to begin the journey, that is, if we have disconnected all the dock lines.

The plan for 2017 includes two Nordic Tug rendezvous, time in NYC, and then meet up with Sir Tugley Blue in Massachusetts to cruise to Maine where Carrie Rose will spend the winter. All admirable goals and ones in which, I hope, Murphy’s Law will not have to be invoked.