Chasing Waves – Years later
The years flew by and while the sails remained full, the times spent chasing waves spread farther apart. Pops had less inclination to be heading off and traveling as he had happily wrapped himself whole heartily in a new fresh love affair. He kept things local, that being sailing up and down the eastern seaboard of the states as well as frequent trips out to the clear waters of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles. When I wasn’t busy at the sailing school, we would get together on some of these getaways, reminisce on the times gone by, and spoke about one day, how we again would head off somewhere to rekindle the youth of our dormant traveling spirits.
Together, those days would never be lived again but I was still content on having Pops rewinding the many stories he had shared. Stories of a sailing mishap off Oaxaca Mexico, where a failed engine had their 38'' foot Atkins Ingrid being towed into a harbor going by the name of Puerto Escondido. A place where romance mingled by seaside with the always present back drop of heavy waves that Pops recons could challenge the bravest of hearts.
Or the stop over on the island of Ceylon, were he spoke of sipping fine tea in the highlands of Ella and rambling train rides on the hard trail to a place called Arugam. The glorious sunrise surfing of Arugam. Then there was Africa “the heartbeat of the world” as he put it. Stunning landscapes powering the rhythms of the Xhosa people, night time fires in the Kalahari and that diamond trading horseman of Swokupmund. All these stories had me knowing that the world was too big to stay idle.
While Pops claimed he had lived out his dreams of experiencing all he had desired to see, he constantly reminded me that life was too short to be fussed up in the head by mortgage payments and car loans. “The pretty things in the world cannot be bought but must be experienced”.
Taking his advice while utilizing one of his contacts back in Asia, with the hunger for travel and waves, I made the decision to part ways with my work and sedentary life and upon receiving an invite to regatta sailing season in south-east Asia, I set out for an extended shot at discovery and high sea adventure. My ultimate goal was to reach Indonesia and saturate my soul in the playground of waves that had been embedded into my heart and head thanks to endless coverage within the magazines and movie clips. But ultimately it was all about tasting life as an adventure.
On an early November morning, the large 777 screamed up and out towards the west. Within two days’ time, I would be transplanted down into another far away culture, one that would be the launching pad and gate way to a great many stories yet to be made.
