Filling the well

I remember reading Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi, it being one of the books that made me want to move onto a sailboat and start roaming. Early in the book she mentioned wanting to be a writer and how the need to go off on an adventure to have something to write about.

Living life, reading books, even watching TV has been referred to as “filling the well” and over the past few weeks I’ve been living an interesting time.

With us living on a sailboat there is a fall necessity of sailing south for the winter. From New England to Florida to stay warm. This year we have the added need to help my adult children in their quest for independence by getting one to a SCUBA school to take some classes, and the other to a Maritime Academy to take some classes.

And of course the general stress of the journey. We lost our engine off the coast of New Jersey, a two day sail took 5 days. We struggled through the rivers and canals of the IntraCoastal Waterway as we repaired our engine piece by peice.

Still we arrived safe and sound in a tiny little town where my youngest will be taking his Captain’s License Course with the aspiration of both continuing to work on charter yachts and eventually running his own.

Work is still overwhelming, and there are more repairs and upgrades to our floating home. But our adventure has helped me “fill the well” a bit.

In addition to reworking classes for the day job which will include recording a few dozen videos while we are here I’ve also been outlining and starting to write the first in what I hope is a series of chapter books about the “Adventures of Captain Apollo”. Apollo being my cat. In many cases the first book is writing itself since it’s essentially an exaggerated and melodramatic version of our own journey. The biggest fictional components are that Apollo sails solo and has time to write his memoirs. Well that and him being a cat who sails solo.

With some luck I’ll be able to catch up on the work for the day job. Finish up the boat projects for our stay. Help the boys become more independent and self sufficient. And of course hide myself away for as much time as I can muster to work on my own creative projects.