Our Journey's End

(And this is Thursday's post)

This was our last full day aboard "Journey's End." We had a short but brisk sail to another bay in the National Park of St. John. The "breeze" picked up quite a bit today and most boats had their sails reefed, included ours. Reefing your sails makes the sail area smaller - important for stability on really windy days. And today our wind indicator registered gusts of over 26 knots per hour.

We ended up just relaxing once we arrived in this secluded anchorage. For our next trip, we'll have to remember to take more time to simply enjoy our surroundings. Sailing is a very fun way to get from point A to point B, but some days we might have done too much. Regular life is about rushing from one thing to another. Travel should be about immersing yourself in the simple experiences.

When I travel, I like to read books about the places I'm visiting. On our first trip to the BVIs I read "Don't Stop the Carnival" by Herman Wouk. It's a fictional account of a dissatisfied Brit who comes to the islands and begins managing a resort. Quite a challenge working with people who operate on island time. "Feet, Fins and a Four-Wheel Drive" was my choice during our land-based trip to St. John. This was an entertainingly written guidebook about the off-the-beaten-path spots to visit but also provided a great historical perspective of the island.

On this trip, I chose "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" for my reading enjoyment. It's a memoir from the late 1990s about a couple who take a year off and travel the Caribbean on their 40 foot sailboat. The author is the wife, who had virtually no sailing experience before they decided to take their journey. She's very upfront about her fears during their year aboard the boat, but she manages to overcome them to have a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Her stories about gale force winds during overnight passages make me look like a chickensh**. She's my inspiration!

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