02/01/2025 ICW Day 32 : Anchored in the Moment

We have been on the water for a month now, and I am grateful for how we have grown and changed.

Because Janet and I have done so many bike trips, we have practically become “experts.” This applies to every aspect of bicycle touring, but let’s use campsite selection as an example: We know how to select a good campsite to the Nth degree - taking into account every aspect of our surroundings: Is there a limb overhead that might fall? How well does the soil drain, and is there a slope? Which way is the wind blowing? Are there nearby sprinklers that might come in at night? Is there evidence of critters, and if so, which food protection strategy do we need to use? Can you smell water nearby? Where will the sun rise in the morning? All of this comes so naturally now, that we can glance at a spot quickly and assess it’s worth as a place to spend one night. We practically do all of this analysis subconsciously. We don’t always get it right, but we regularly do a lot better than we used to.

The same applies to other elements of touring: bike repair, route planning, route timing, grocery store selection, how to pack stuff, battery charging, water acquisition, etc. a lot has become “instinctual”. The good of that is that we have more good times than ever thanks to our planning. The bad is that it isn’t quite so novel or mentally stimulating.

While there is some overlap with bike touring when you’re traveling on a sailing kayak, there are a lot of new elements at play. We have learned a lot, but even after a month, we are still making adjustments to how we do things and changing our routines slightly each day. It’s a way of finding out what works and what doesn’t.

I love the feeling of “optimization”. For example, it makes me feel really happy to be charging all of our devices “in parallel” and while Janet manages the charging, I ride the bike to grab groceries. It’s like we are making the best of our limited presence on this earth to spend as little time doing the rote stuff… leaving time to do the stuff we want to be doing - like sailing, reading to each other, basking in the sun, eating a take-out lunch together, or sharing a Michelob Ultra inside the tent.

To the same degree that I get happy from optimization, I get saddened by waste. An example of waste is trying to sail upwind, upcurrent in a channel that is barely wide enough to tack with boat wakes coming every few minutes. But here is the deal: It doesn’t HAVE to be that way…

And so we stopped, took a break, and worked with (instead of against) the rhythms of nature. We sat down and ordered cheeseburgers from a BBq joint and sat and waited out the current shift. When we got back on the water, instead of fighting it, we were getting a heavenly lift.

We still learn each day, but we get better at parking the boat, packing our stuff, keeping things dry (and acquiescing to sodden clothes instead of fighting it when the dew point is 70F).

And we are still far from perfect. For example, today we went to launch the boat. As we both heaved and ho’d- dragging the boat DOWN to the water, I said to Janet:

“gee.. I think that all of this dragging has not only increased our boat’s friction in the water (from micro scratches), but also in the sand. We can’t even get this downhill!”

Eventually, the boat wouldn’t budge!

Finally I realized: I had tied the boat to the tent last night as a security measure to prevent it from drifting away. We had uprooted the tent, its stakes, and dragged it a few feet until it was caught, taut, on some roots and branches. DOH!!

Still learning, sometimes good, but yeah, not always!