I made it back to the boat just in time to avoid getting caught in the rain. It is day 3 since I started running again, and this morning I went from Fare to Faaite on the West side of Huahine, but don’t get too impressed. It’s only about a mile in each direction.
Since it is day 3, maybe a little recap is in order:
Day 1 – 1 mile, had to walk most of the way back because Mother Nature was calling
Day 2 – 3 miles, running euphoria, I even opened up my stride the last half mile or so
Day 3 – 2 miles, dead legs, kept looking at my watch the entire time, had to suck down a gu gel. I mean seriously, who needs a gu gel during a 2 mile run?
So, I have a ways to go.
I didn’t quite run empty handed today. In one hand I had a VHF radio, because telling the boys to set a timer for 40 minutes and then look for me at the dock wasn’t quite working out. In the other hand I carried my bread bag, because I would stop at the Super Fare Nui (grocery store) for baguettes after my run. Baguettes have become such a staple for us since arriving in French Polynesia, and we’ve learned that all baguettes are not created equal. The best ones were in Atuona and Papeete. Atuona because they were the first ones we had after a 22-day ocean crossing, and even if they weren’t really that great, I remember them as amazing. Papeete, because they really were amazing. Just the right amount of crunch in the crust and softness in the bread. The worst ones were in Makemo. Way, way, way too much crunch in the crust and way, way, way too much softness in the bread. Anyway, baguettes are the new tortillas. That makes sense, considering we spent a year in Mexico before coming to French Polynesia. Adapting from tortillas and guacamole to baguettes and brie has been mostly a seamless process. We just sort of go with the flow. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, or some cliché like that.
OK, truth be told, there’s a lot of adapting the must be done when you live on a sailboat in foreign countries, and not all of it is as seamless as switching from yummy tortillas to yummy baguettes. And it’s amplified for us, because it would be fair to say that adapting is a skill I am having to develop as we go.
Take my drink of choice, for example. I was in love with good California wine. My preference was always a full-bodied red, like a Cabernet Franc or a Zinfandel. But I drank a lot of oaky, buttery Chardonnays too, because they were less expensive, and a wine habit can start to break the bank after a while. It is difficult to keep up a wine habit in Mexico, because quite frankly, the wine is crap. The best you can find is Chilean wine, which once upon a time after we visited Chile, I convinced myself was good, but really, it’s not. Cruisers drink a lot of boxed wine, because it’s cheaper and it stores easier than bottles, and I’m not above cracking a box of “California White” to mix with sparkling water on a hot day, but one can hardly call that wine. I still have a few bottles of red that we brought with us when we left home, and visitors have brought me the odd bottle of Chardonnay, but mostly I’ve had to adapt away from my wine habit. Being sailors and all, I’ve discovered sipping rum. It took a while to adjust, in fact, I can still remember my first sip as we toasted to a safe voyage at the beginning of the Baja Ha Ha. It burned my nose and lips. But now I love it. So, that’s what we do out here, we adapt.
Another change I’ve had to adapt to is being with my husband and kids all day, every day. Mostly I’ve adapted to that in the same way I’ve adapted to the wine thing. Rum. Lots of rum.
And on that note, I’d like to say Happy Anniversary to my love. Fourteen years and counting.
-D.
Gresham Family Exodus 